Briefs

briefs

Local government conference

Lawyers from Cloisters Chambers are joining forces with the Local Government Information Unit to present a conference on local government and law. The event, to be held at the Natfhe conference suite, Britannia Street, London, on 3 June, will address legal issues likely to hit local government in the wake of the general election.

Bernard Simons lecture

Henry Hodge, former vice-president of the Law Society and deputy chairman of the Legal Aid Board, will devote the third Bernard Simons memorial lecture to "Discrimination, human rights and the legal professions" on 6 June.

Legal standards

Law firms "need to stop looking for excessive profit and to refuse to compromise over standards or to undertake work (unless there is a charitable intent) which only covers overheads", David McIntosh, senior partner of Davies Arnold Cooper, said in a forthright speech to corporate lawyers and in-house counsel last week.

Partner-swapping at Eversheds

National solicitors firm Eversheds is seeing a little partner-swapping at its home base of Birmingham. Andrew Inglis, a longstanding specialist family law partner, has responded to the firm's decision to give up matrimonial work as it concentrates on company and commercial law by joining up with the niche firm of Benussi. The news came as Eversheds elected Adrian Bland, a commercial property expert, senior partner of the Birmingham office.

Judicial independence

Robert Stephens, master of Pembroke College, Oxford, will speak on "Law, politics, judges and politicians and the little matter of judicial independence" in the sixth Hardwicke Building Lecture, in the Old Hall, Lincoln's Inn, on 21 May.