Graham HuntleyGraham Huntley
Graham Huntley
Graham Huntley is a commercial litigator. Graham was formerly Head of Investment Banking and Funds Litigation at Hogan Lovells and now is a partner of Signature Litigation
  • Home
  • About
    • Graham Huntley
    • Signature Litigation
  • Services
    • Services
    • Arbitration
    • Banking Litigation
    • Civil Fraud & Asset Recovery
    • Commercial Litigation
    • Contentious Regulatory
    • Litigation
    • Mediation
    • Professional Negligence
  • Clients
  • Values
    • Values
    • Capital Cases Charitable Trust
    • London Legal Support Trust
    • London Solicitors Litigation Association
    • Royal Courts of Justice Advice Bureau
  • News
  • Contact
Menu back  

The Times Law Diary: Edward Fennell

August 1, 2013

The Times | Edward Fennell

With government cuts to legal advice services, financial help from prosperous law firms is more important than ever.

NO BREAK IN TRADITION

Newly appointed Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders was said to be sampling the Crown Prosecution Service in Blackfriars Crown Court last Thursday. By all accounts it was the usual CPS shambles, with frustration and irritation all round. Nice to see a new regime with age- old standards: Saunders, no doubt, will be hoping to put things right.

HARD TIMES

Graham Huntley and his fellow directors at the London Legal Support Trust had the tough task on Monday of allocating £700,000 raised by events such as the London Legal Walk. With cuts in Government support, such help is all the more needed. But genuine corporate social responsibility is a question of character, not a PR tack-on, Huntley insists. He’s set up his own firm, Signature Litigation, with cofounder Helen Brannigan. It operates a generous profits-share route for the whole team. “Everyone,” he boasts, “from the cleaners to the partners, is now earning more than they did with their previous employers.”

LAST WORD

Lord Judge’s speech in response to an outpouring of tributes and standing ovation at his formal farewell this week was brief, other than to say he was “frankly overwhelmed” and to thank people for their “support, loyalty and kindness” since he took office. One reason? His tonsillitis. The next day his voice was all but gone and Lord Dyson had to hand down what would have been one of Judge’s last judgments, on assisted suicide.

INVITING INVESTIGATION

The debate sparked off in this column last week as to whether PR firms working in the law deliver value for money led to steamy exchanges. Gus Sellitto of the agency Byfield referenced the way that Mishcon de Reya had recruited Elliot Moss, former Leo Burnett advertising executive, in 2009 as director of business development. The firm’s recent progress illustrates the benefits of having a PR-savvy boss.

Of course, Mishcon’s latest high-profile publicity has been for its use of RISC Management Ltd, the private detective agency facing investigation over alleged payments to police officers.

The firm previously used Carratu, an agency found to have acted unlawfully. Are these detective agencies delivering value for money? That’s a private investigation really worth doing.

A BUSTED MODEL

Accountant Eric Golding of Stanley Davis Practice Support Services, gives a graphic description of the problems of small firms: “Debts of about £100,000, no increase in drawings for about four years and the amount being drawn was in the region of £50,000 p.a. Meanwhile professional indemnity insurance premium of about £40,000 p.a. means that to close the firm would entail insurance costs of £100,000.” Let’s face it — this business model’s bust.

Read the original article here.

Related posts
Bonuses for all as niche firm spreads the wealth
July 29, 2013
You can drag a horse to mediation…
July 4, 2013
The New Costs Landscape
May 3, 2013
Leave Comment

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

clear formSubmit

Latest posts
  • Graham Huntley and Signature Litigation ranked in Chambers UK 2021 Guide
    October 22, 2020
  • Signature Litigation contributes to The Legal 500 Country Comparative Guide on Force Majeure
    June 29, 2020
  • Signature Litigation ranked in The Legal 500 EMEA 2020 Guide
    April 15, 2020
  • Signature Litigation listed in the top 20 specialist firms for client service
    April 7, 2020
  • Signature Litigation featured in Legal Business’s “Disputes Yearbook 2020”
    March 27, 2020
  • Graham Huntley highly ranked in Chambers UK 2020
    October 10, 2019
Tweets by @Huntley_Graham
Get in touch

Signature Litigation LLP
138 Fetter Lane
London
EC4A 1BT

 +44 (0)20 3818 3500
 +44 (0)20 3818 3501

 info@signaturelitigation.com

Signature Litigation

LATEST HEADLINES
  • Graham Huntley and Signature Litigation ranked in Chambers UK 2021 Guide
    October 22, 2020
  • Signature Litigation contributes to The Legal 500 Country Comparative Guide on Force Majeure
    June 29, 2020
  • Signature Litigation ranked in The Legal 500 EMEA 2020 Guide
    April 15, 2020
© Graham Huntley 2016