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09 July 2013
Issue: 7568 / Categories: Legal News
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Planners join law firm

Knights has a new plan

Private equity backed commercial law firm, Knights Solicitors has taken the unusual step of hiring an entire team of town planners to support its real estate team of 40 lawyers.

Knights, now an alternative business structure, became the first law firm to raise private capital last year, in a deal with former BBC Dragon’s Den investor James Caan’s firm Hamilton Bradshaw.

Its new team of six planners will offer clients a “one-stop shop” of specialist planning advice such as submitting applications and development appraisals alongside legal services.

Carl Copestake, head of the new planning team, says: “There is often a disconnect between the planning process and the legal process underpinning it as these services are typically provided by one team of lawyers and another team of planners operating apart from each. This can make the planning process lengthier and more expensive than it should be. We plan to bridge this gap.”

Issue: 7568 / Categories: Legal News
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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