News

UK visa quota system will affect London-bound Kiwi lawyers

By Darise Bennington

NOW THAT the legal recruitment market is finally starting to pick up, magic and silver circle law firms are discovering that their ability to hire talented Antipodean lawyers has been affected by recent immigration changes. “The combination of increasing the required points and lowering the visa quotas for the law firms is going to have a fairly dramatic impact on the number of lawyers from here who can migrate to the UK,” said Dolman managing director Ralph Laughton.

In July, a new quota system was introduced to the UK, limiting the number of tier two visas each law firm has available, thus hampering their ability to sponsor lawyers beyond the number to which they have been allocated. The changes will not only affect their ability to recruit graduates from countries outside the European Union, but it will also affect lateral hires, said Jonathan Walmsley, principal, Marsden Group.

Lessons from a polytechnic?

By Mark von Dadelszen, partner, Bannister & von Dadelszen

According to a recent Dominion Post report, a police investigation has begun after more than $750,000 was drained from Whitireia Polytechnic Students’ Association funds over a 12-month period (“Police inquiry into missing student funds”, 17 August 2010). An audit report is said to show that huge cash payments were made to former Association executive members, that about $17,000 was spent through excessive use of mobile broadband modems to surf the Internet, that mobile phone bills of five members of the executive averaged $700 a month, and that in June last year, $20,000 was taken out of the Association’s savings account in cash and a further $10,000 by cheque, with the auditor unable to find any explanation for the withdrawals.

Features & Opinions

DIRECTOR'S DUTIES
The business of life
Lloyd Kavanagh and Katie Bennett comment on the capital markets implications of the ‘Feltex Five’ verdict

Feltex’s former directors (dubbed the “Feltex Five” by the media) have been found not guilty of breaching section 36A of the Financial Reporting Act 1993 (FRA), despite the fact that the applicable financial reporting standards had not been complied with (which was not disputed). This was because the directors could rely on the defence in section 40 of the FRA that they had taken “all reasonable and proper steps” to ensure compliance, including voluntarily retaining accounting firm Ernst & Young to conduct a review of Feltex’s half-yearly financials.

CIVIL LITIGATION
Achieving perfect justice
Judge Roderick Joyce QC and Dr Berry Zondag present the case for enhanced case management and greater judicial clarity

It is surely pointless to examine the cost of justice without identifying the assumptions that underlie the means by which we seek to see justice done. On the premise that the current litigation paradigm strives to achieve ‘perfect’ justice, we investigate difficulties with its apparent assumptions. Concluding that reaching for the best practicable justice requires weighing of resources, we suggest a combination of enhanced case management, use of technology, and a distinct improvement in the clarity of decision making as the means to bring us closer to optimum delivery of justice.

ARBITRATION
Challenging the arbitrator
Daniel Kalderimis looks at what can be learned from the ICSID system

The attention of many New Zealand lawyers is presently focused on the standards of conduct required of the judiciary. Those who practise in the world of commercial arbitration are conscious that similar debates are taking place about arbitrator conduct.

It is easy to see why. The parties typically appoint arbitrators directly and are required to pay for their services. They are entitled – on a purely contractual basis – to expect high professional standards. Moreover, there is no right to appeal from an arbitration award (save, if permitted, on questions of law). Thus, the integrity of the process relies heavily upon the objectivity and fairness of each arbitrator.