A recent case in Manchester has highlighted the importance of paying attention to detail when it comes to conveyancing. An assistant solicitor has been fined £5,000 after forgetting to register a Notice of Interest in a property. His oversight was much dearer, however, for his client. As a result of the mistake, an investor didn’t receive £40,400 due when the property was sold! 

Losing the Plot

This recent oversight made headlines in legal publications for obvious reasons. It has brought up the fact that too many conveyancers in the UK are making simple errors, which end up both inconveniencing and costing their clients. 

Earlier this month, a judgment by Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart in the Technology and Construction Court attracted a lot of attention because of the learned judge’s comments about what he saw as the poor preparation of the trial bundles. In fact, he considered that the problems of the bundles were so acute that he adjourned two parts of a three-part application, and ordered that the costs of the adjournment as well as the costs of repaginating the defective bundle should be paid by the firm which had originally submitted it. In other words, it was a fairly expensive mistake. 

The problem was the page numbering, or pagination, of the bundle. Those of you who are involved in the preparation of bundles will probably recognise the difficulty: it is the ‘Russian doll’ effect of putting already paginated documents into a bigger bundle, and the confusion that can arise.

A member of Hethertons Solicitors team has been awarded a lifetime Membership of the Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs (ILSPA) for her outstanding work at the leading firm.
 
Karen Chirnside has received Fellowship Membership from the organisation having satisfied the strict requirements of the Institute, which include at least six years of experience as a Legal Secretary.
 
Speaking after receiving the award, Karen said: ‘I am absolutely delighted to be admitted as a lifetime fellow of ILSPA. It is nice to receive recognition for the work and commitment put in to my role at Hethertons.’
 
Karen works within Hethertons’ Private Client department, where she provides support to the practice’s team of experienced solicitors.
 

New data protection laws are coming into effect across the EU this spring, and they’re set to be some of the most stringent in the world.

Here in the UK, prior to the new EU Data Protection Regulation there was no actual legal obligation for organisations to report personal data breaches to anyone, merely a recommendation that the Information Commissioner’s Office be made aware of serious breaches. 

This seemingly lackadaisical approach stems from the Data Protection Act of 1998, prior to the days of mass Internet usage. The new EU regulation will reportedly be much more in tune with the age of smartphones and cloud storage.

New Obligations in the EU

We’ve come a long way, baby

Just over 100 years ago, in December 1912, a woman named Gwyneth Bebb applied to the Law Society to become a solicitor. There was no doubt that she was more than able to be one.

Vicki Lister is the Secretarial, Catering and Reception Services Manager for Reed Smith, a global law firm based in London.

Vicki has worked her way up to her current management position after initially starting her career as a nanny. She then made the change to law and took on a secretarial role at a Magic Circle firm and has since progressed through promotion to her current role.

Vicki joins us to share her experience and what a typical day is like for her…

How I start my day… I start my day at 6.30 a.m. and get into the office around 8.45. I check my emails on my train journey to ensure any urgent absences can be dealt with early and so that when I get into the office I can get straight on with other work or urgent emails or attend any meetings. I have breakfast and a strong coffee at my desk, much needed!

Here is a selection of vacancies from our Legal Secretary Jobs Board this month:

Corporate Legal Secretary – Howard Kennedy 
Location: London
Salary: Competitive 

Howard Kennedy is looking for a new Legal Secretary to join their Corporate Department. The successful candidate will be expected to provide first class professional secretarial and administrative support for five fee earners.

Experience of working as a Secretary within a corporate department (both contentious and non-contentious) is essential.

View the full job description here: 
https://www.institutelegalsecretaries.com/jobs/candidate/job/48685/

SecsintheCity, the UK’s #1 job site for PAs and EAs, has announced a new event for PAs and EAs – the Summer Networking Event – which will take place on 9 June 2016 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel London - The City.

The event offers PAs and EAs an opportunity to speed-network with high-profile PAs and EAs, including:
-          Jules Clark, PA to the CEO at Eversheds LLP
-          Alison Boler, PA to the SVP of Legal at Sony Music

Mark Doyle, a training expert from The Method will present a workshop on ‘Handling Difficult Situations in the Workplace’.

In addition, the event offers one-to-one CV and career advice and will include pop-up boutiques such as:
-          Jo Malone
-          Chococo
-          Moores of London
-          Little Ondine
-          Return to Glory
-          The Headshot Guy

Password security is vital security

Last month’s huge data breach at the Panamanian law firm of Mossack Fonseca – to give you an idea of its size, it was hundreds of times bigger than the material released by Wikileaks in 2010 – is an example of just how much damage a data security leak can cause. The private affairs of the firm’s clients became public property overnight, allowing the press to trace money across continents and into tax havens. 

Although the leak uncovered some pretty questionable, and possibly illegal, behaviour on the part of some of the firm’s clients, many other clients who were not doing anything wrong had their most private financial affairs opened up for the world to see. 

Vicarious simply means ‘in place of’. Vicarious liability is a legal term that refers to a kind of secondary accountability. In other words, Person A is responsible for the wrongdoings of Person B, even though Person A had no direct involvement in the offence. 

Vicarious liability is a doctrine (a belief or set of beliefs) of English tort law. In simple terms, a tort is a civil wrongdoing. It occurs when someone unjustly causes another person to suffer harm or loss. The person who commits the tortious act is the tortfeasor. 

We can use a hypothetical situation in the workplace to illustrate how this works. 

Hypothetical Case Study