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Tom McEntegart heads a strong team at Anderson Fyfe LLP, which acts for a range of private and public sector clients including Scottish Power, RBS, and Tesco Personal Finance. John Paul Sheridan is recommended.

Harper Macleod LLP’s service is ‘excellent, professional and very responsive‘, and team head Dawn Mckenzie is ‘renowned for her knowledge, accessibility and willingness to help‘. Clients include the Child Support Agency in Scotland, Clydesdale Bank and the Accountant in Bankruptcy.

The ‘approachable and willing‘ Mark Higgins is head of recoveries at Irwin Mitchell LLP, which is ‘not afraid to recommend process changes it feels will add value to our business‘. Clients include HBOS, HSBC, and RBS.

Headed by the highly respected Frank Johnstone, McClure Naismith LLP represents some of the largest clients in the market, including National Australia Group, Honda Finance and Bank of Scotland.

Ruari MacNeill leads Anderson Strathern LLP’s ‘comprehensive‘ team, whose level of knowledge ‘cannot be faulted‘. The firm advises an impressive range of major banks and building societies, as well as corporate creditors.

Bermans enjoys a very strong reputation in the market and also has offices in Liverpool, Manchester and New York.

Biggart Baillie LLP’s active team is jointly headed by Alan Strain and Alison Grant. Clients include PwC, Savills Commercial and Grahams Family Dairies.

Led by David Whyte, Brodies LLP’s debt recovery team is ‘first class throughout‘. ‘Invaluable‘ assistant Ricky Cannon is singled out for his ‘professionalism and knowledge‘.

Asset Recovery Manager Rhona Cuthbert is the main contact at HBJ Gateley Wareing LLP, which acts for a range of major banks, car finance companies, solicitors and social housing clients.

Alayne Swanson heads the team at Maclay Murray & Spens LLP, which acts for a number of insolvency practitioners including KPMG, Tenon Group and PwC. The firm is also active in employee debt and property arrears.

Morton Fraser enjoys a good reputation for high-value debt recovery work, advising clients such as Midlothian Council, Nationwide Building Society and Fortis Lease. Maggie Moodie heads the team.

Gillian Carty heads the team at Shepherd and Wedderburn, whose clients include HSBC, Scottish & Newcastle, and Bibby Financial Services.

Managing partner Stephen Cowan heads a very well-organised and well-respected practice at Yuill & Kyle.

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Legal Developments in the UK

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  • Student employees – new restrictions on employment

    On 10 February 2010 a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules was laid before Parliament which is due to come into force on 3 March 2010.
    - Penningtons Solicitors LLP
  • Landlord & Tenant Briefing

    Dilapidations in commercial premises – ten points to consider
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • Being a helpful Landlord may be a mistake!

    Most landlords and their solicitors try to resist the impulse to be helpful, however, in these recessionary times when landlords are concerned to avoid empty space, there may be the temptation to take shortcuts to ensure a letting proceeds. In circumstances where it is intended that Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (the 1954 Act) should not apply to the tenancy, i.e. that the tenant should not have the benefit of security of tenure, then occupation before the lease has been finalised (and the appropriate ‘contracting-out’ steps taken) is a potentially dangerous step and needs to be taken only when the landlord has fully comprehended the potential consequences.
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • New regime for approval of major transport projects set to ‘switch on’

    The Planning Act 2008 (the Act) introduces a new regime designed to speed up the planning and, in turn, the delivery of infrastructure projects of national significance. For transport projects, it is one of the most important pieces of legislation in recent years. The new procedure will have to be used for any third runway at Heathrow, amongst other high-profile projects.
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • Divorce and the media: the courts, the pay-outs and the speculation

    The rising divorce rate and some well-publicised settlements running into tens of millions of pounds have focused attention on a growing issue in divorce cases: just how far can spouses go to obtain information about their partner’s financial affairs?
    - Schillings
  • Top ten really useful cases of 2009

    If you want your panel solicitor to‘get off the fence’, need to know when a cause of action accrues or wondered whether the judiciary live in the 21st century, the following cases from 2009 provide some really useful guidance. With professional negligence claims on the increase, whether you are giving or receiving legal advice, the cases discussed below highlight practical points for all legal advisers to be aware of.
    - Bond Pearce LLP
  • The twilight zone: legal issues for directors

    there is no legal definition of the term ‘twilight zone’ (perhaps derived from the cult TV series, the writer would like to think), which is now widely used to describe a period of trading when a company has, or is predicted to have, insufficient cash to pay its debts as they fall due. This might be an immediate cash-flow crisis or the problem might be anticipated many months ahead.
    - Holman Fenwick Willan
  • Cloud computing:key issues for SMEs

    Although many definitions exist, broadly speaking ‘cloud computing’ is the outsourcing of specified IT functions via the internet (the cloud) to provide or receive services that would otherwise only be available if the end user had installed the appropriate hardware and/or software on desktops, or on local networks controlled by that organisation itself. Such services may include the use of software over the internet or remote storage of business data by a third-party provider. One benefit of this is that businesses can structure payment for these services differently (for example pay-as-you-go or on a subscription basis), rather than having to pay large sunk costs for long-term software licences, and the purchase and installation of IT infrastructure necessary to support the services locally.
    - SJ Berwin LLP
  • Commission victorious in ‘regulatory holiday’ action brought against Germany

    On 3 December 2009, following an action brought by the European Commission under article 226 of the EC Treaty (now article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed that Germany had failed to comply with its obligations under the European regulatory framework for telecommunications (the Common Regulatory Framework (CRF)). The ECJ’s judgment in European Commission v Germany [2009] confirms that Germany acted unlawfully by adopting a national law excluding ‘new markets’ from regulation – so called ‘regulatory holidays’.
    - SJ Berwin LLP
  • New Commission

    On Friday 27 November 2009 the new European Commission, which will begin its mandate early in 2010, was announced by Commission President José Barroso. This announcement followed a week after the appointment of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton as the President of the European Council and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy respectively, the two new roles created by the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on 1 December 2009.
    - Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP

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