News 2005

Russell-Cooke Secure Record Damages for Sky
(Posted Dec 05)

Peter Cadman, partner and head of Professional Regulation, recently won £65,000 in damages for British Sky Broadcasting from a north London company that operated a number of licensed premises that were showing Sky without the correct commercial viewing agreement. The company agreed an out of court settlement which was the highest ever awarded to Sky for showing their live football matches illegally.



Praise for Russell-Cooke Training Programme
(Posted Dec 05)

The Lex 100 and the Chambers Student Guide are two publications which aim to guide graduates into trainee positions at suitable firms. Both books, which are also published on the web, interview current trainees at a range of law firms to get an overview of the firm and what trainees can expect from their training contracts. The latest editions of the books were published recently and Russell-Cooke has been widely praised for the diversity of its training programme.

The Lex 100 survey rates firms' training contracts for job satisfaction, quality of work, client contact, helpful colleagues, stress levels, working hours, social life, friendliness, likelihood of being kept on and likelihood of being with the firm in five years time. Russell-Cooke featured in the top ten firms in eight of those categories - no other firm reviewed did better.

Chambers Student Guide highlighted that the firm's unusually broad range of specialist departments made it a 'clever choice' for those who were undecided about the area of law they wanted to specialise in after their contract.

Russell-Cooke takes in 5-6 trainees a year. The training contract lasts for two years and each trainee spends 6 months in four different departments.

Click here to see the LEX 100 Survey.

Click here to see the Chambers Student Guide.



Russell-Cooke Shine In Legal 500 and Chambers Directories
(Posted Dec 05)

The recent publication of the two most highly regarded legal directories, Chambers Guide and the Legal 500 show that Russell-Cooke continues to grow both in size and the breadth and depth of its specialisations

In terms of the number of fee earners, Russell-Cooke is now the 55th largest law firm in London (up from 61st last year) and 108th in the country (up from 137th last year).

Russell-Cooke is recommended in a number of work areas. Crime, Family, Commercial Property, Charities and Contentious Trusts & Probate are recognised once again this year and the firm moved up the rankings for Professional Discipline. Although they have long been recommended in the Legal 500, the Property Litigation team was recommended by Chambers this year too.

The two mergers in 2005 led to the firm being recommended in new areas such as Clinical Negligence, Personal Injury, Advertising & Marketing, Music and Theatre.

Several of the firm's solicitors have been singled out as leaders in their fields: Deborah Blythe, Peter Cadman, Jae Carwardine, Tim Curtis, Lawrence Harrison, Jason Hunter, Terry Lee, Samantha Little, and James Sinclair Taylor.

Click here to see our recommendations in Chambers.

Click here to see our recommendations in the Legal 500.



Richard Frimston Addresses the European Union on Cross-Border Wills Issues
(Posted Nov 05)

Richard Frimston, partner and head of the Private Client department, was recently invited to address the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs on the issue of which country's law applies when executing wills with a cross-border dimension. Richard is a member of a number of working parties including that of the Law Society and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners who have been considering the issue for some time. The outcome of the meeting was that new EU legislation was required to clarify the issue and that the most applicable law should be the law of the state where the person was last habitually resident unless the person chooses otherwise.

Full notes 



Russell-Cooke Launches Civil Partnership Webpage
(Posted Nov 05)

The Civil Partnership Act which comes into force on December 5th will have far reaching legal implications. In response, Russell-Cooke have launched a dedicated area of the site to offer advice to those contemplating taking the step. The page looks at the impact a civil partnership has in areas such as childcare, inheritance, and tax. It also considers pre-partnership agreements (similar to pre-nuptial agreements) and what happens in the case of relationship breakdown. Click here to go to the page.



New partner strengthens the Russell-Cooke Commercial Property Group

Russell-Cooke is pleased to announce that Howard Swindall joins its Commercial Property Group as a partner on 5th September 2005. Howard, who has more than 25 years experience in the sector, brings Russell-Cooke's flourishing property group to 12 partners and 33 fee earners overall. His appointment is key to the continuing development of Russell-Cooke as a national leader in commercial property law. Howard spent more than 22 years in the Commercial Property Group at Richards Butler, including over 19 years as a partner, before making the decision to leave and join Russell-Cooke.

Click here for full press release.



New Partner Announcement

Russell-Cooke is pleased to announce that Paul Greatholder and Donall Murphy have been made partners in the firm as of 1st July 2005.

Paul works in Russell-Cooke's Contentious Property department. He specialises in all areas of contentious property work, including business tenancy renewals, commercial and residential landlord and tenant disputes (including bringing or resisting possession proceedings), party wall disputes, rights of light actions, rent arrears recovery and freehold land disputes. Paul is a Director of the Property Litigation Association.

Donall works in Russell-Cooke's Conveyancing department based in Putney, where he specialises in all aspects of residential property. Donall Qualified in 1997 before going on to work for Murray Maclean & Krieger. He joined Russell-Cooke in 2002.

The new appointments mean that Russell-Cooke now has 40 partners in its offices in Central London, Putney and Kingston-upon-Thames.



Sarah Forsyth wins unfair dismissal claim against Eton College.

Click for the Full Press Release 



Russell-Cooke 10th Annual Law Prize

The 10th Annual Russell-Cooke law prize was awarded to Suzanne Franzkowiak. The prize is given each year to the best academically performing student on Kingston University's Post Graduate Diploma in Law course and is a welcome boost to its recipients as they embark on their legal careers.

Suzanne said " I had a fantastic year at Kingston University…the course was very positive and it really spurred me on to continue in Law".

She is currently completing her LPC at Guilford and has a training contract at BP Collins lined up.

Russell-Cooke wishes Suzanne all the best with her future career.



Sponsorship News

Russell-Cooke is pleased to announce that it will once again be the sole sponsor of the Roehampton Gold Cup, one of the leading competitions for professional and amateur lady golfers. The event will take place on Saturday 23rd April 2005 at the Roehampton Club, Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5LR. Spectators are most welcome. More information can be found at www.roehamptonclub.co.uk

The firm is also pleased to announce a new sponsorship with Polka Theatre in Wimbledon. The theatre is one of the few venues in the UK which is dedicated to producing and presenting high quality theatre for young audiences. Amongst other things, Russell-Cooke's support will allow the theatre to further extend its programme of workshops and after school activities.



Russell-Cooke Merge with Leading Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence Practice

The partners of Russell-Cooke are pleased to announce that on 1st March 2005, the firm merged with Evill & Coleman solicitors. The merger has significantly enhanced the firm's existing Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence team as Evill & Coleman are national leaders in this area of law. Russell-Cooke retains its name.

Based in the firm's Putney offices, Russell-Cooke's enhanced Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence department numbers thirty solicitors and support staff, including an in-house damages expert and a medically qualified member of staff to advise on the clinical aspects of claims. All the solicitors in the department are specialists, including members of the Law Society Personal Injury and Medical Negligence Panel and support groups such as Headway and the Spinal Injuries Association.

Evill and Coleman's clinical negligence team has built its national reputation handling cerebral palsy and catastrophic cases, as well as obstetric, gynaecology, cardiology and dental claims. The personal injury team handles a range of work from highway accidents to occupational diseases and specialises in sporting injuries, particularly rugby.

John Gould, Senior Partner of Russell-Cooke said: "There can be little doubt that the limited resources available to small niche firms have had an adverse impact on their willingness to take on high-risk personal injury and negligence cases, particularly since the removal of legal aid for personal injury cases. This merger is therefore mutually beneficial. We gain from the addition of a highly experienced team with a national reputation; they benefit from a level of technical and logistical support only available in a larger firm."

"Most importantly, the clients' gain is two-fold: the services of an enhanced, highly specialist team to fight personal injury and clinical negligence cases and, should they need it, ready access to all the other legal services they might require in connection with their cases."

Deborah Blythe of Evill & Coleman said: "This is an exciting time for us. We are looking forward to building on our existing reputation with a set up that allows us to represent our clients in high-profile cases on a much more level playing field."