Professional Indemnity Insurance
18.We have provided full details of our current professional indemnity coverin our Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PPQ). The terms of our cover are reviewed annually.
19. 1.3 Resources and Specialist Knowledge
20. Expertise and Structure:
21. Each of our departments contains specialist partner-led teams ensuring that we are able toresource high quality specialist knowledgeand provide a comprehensive service to our clients.
22. Commitment:
23. We are committed to anticipating our client’s needs and meeting them. Fundamental to this is the commitment of each team leader to understand thoroughly the priorities and business of our clients.
24. Information Technology:
25. We have made significant investment in our information technology systems in order to give the support and resources that our lawyers need. Our system enables to transfer know-how into a searchable database using links to cases and legislation, to monitor workloads, measure outputs, and plan ahead more effectively. The stability and security of our system is of particular importance to our clients and to us.
26. Projects at Anchor Robbins:
27. The Project team is headed up by Jan Stephenson and brings together specialists in infrastructure, construction, energy, planning, and public sector. The team are able todraw on relevant expertise from elsewhere in the firm when required and have exclusive access to a dedicated Professional Support Lawyer.
28. The team have had extensive experience in handling PFI (Private Finance Initiative) since its very beginning and have been involved in a considerable range of accommodation projects including schools, hospitals, courts, and light rail projects.
2. Law firm culture
Hi, for those of you who don’t know me yet, my name’s Richard Bailey. I’m here to tell you about my experience doing summer and winter clerkships. In law school, the professors will always tell you that it’s important to do some sort of work experience because it’ll improve your future job opportunities. Have you heard that yet? Well, it’s definitely true. I’m now in my last year here, and I started doing summer and winter clerkships in my first year. It’s been a tremendous learning experience.
Most of my clerkships have lasted for a period of four weeks. I’ve tried to vary the firms I work for, from a small two-man firm right through to a huge global firm. Each firm was different. At smaller firms, I was expected to be more independent and was responsible for more things. I liked that a lot. Since I was usually the only clerk there at the time, I’d have to do whatever work needed to be done.
Working at the bigger firms was quite different. I was usually one among many clerks. The work I performed there tended to concern bigger cases that were quite important and so they had more ‘prestige’ [ 
]. That was really interesting. At the larger firms, I usually had a chance to move between groups in different practice areas, helping out where needed. This allowed me to gain some insight into what was involved in the legal work carried out in these teams and in the different practice areas.
At the smaller firms, I wrote case briefs for the partners and associates, and all kinds of correspondence with clients from the first day on, which I liked doing. At the bigger firms, I was asked to do research and to help to maintain court books. That was a useful learning experience, too.
In my opinion, the main advantage of a clerkship at a large firm is that you meet a lot of new people. There’s a big network of people - so many different lawyers and clients. There’s also a greater emphasis on learning and developing the various skills a lawyer needs in courses and seminars.
I must say that both the larger and the smaller firms tried to give me a sense of being a part of the company, as if I really belonged to their team. At the larger firms, I was even invited to some of their social events, and that was really fun. However, the smaller firms definitely made you feel more comfortable: everything was more friendly and relaxed. But in both types of firms I never felt that I was wasting my time.
My advice to you all is that it’s really important to try to do clerkships, starting in your first year of law school. I also think it’s valuable to get to know a variety of firms, with different practice areas and different sizes. I’m sure it will help you decide what kind of law you want to practise later, and what kind of law firm you’d feel most comfortable in.
Well, as you certainly know, we’re a relatively commercial firm. We’re what’s known as a law boutique, since we specialise in two areas of the law: Real Property and Debtor-Creditor. Since we’re specialists, we try to maintain high standards in our work. As for the firm's culture, I’d have to say we’re pretty traditional. People dress quite formally, in suits, and we don’t call partners by their first names. It’s a good place to work, definitely friendly, people are serious and work very hard.
3. Practice areas
1. I’m a newly qualified lawyer and I’ve just landed a job as an associate at a mid-size law firm. The firm offers a wide range of commercial law services. Our lawyers provide advice on many different legal areas, including banking law, corporate law and corporate tax, employment law, commercial litigation, property law, to name a few. In the next months, I’ll be rotating through some of the departments to get an idea about the different practice areas. At present, I’m working in commercial litigation and am enjoying it. My duties include a good deal of client liaison, lots of research and some writing of briefs and letters. Um, while I’m at this firm, I intend to specialize in an area of the law that involves a lot of trial work, because I think I’d really like to be a litigator.
2.I’m a sole practitioner in the area of employment and labour law in a small city. Some of the legal issues I commonly deal with are wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and discrimination on the basis of gender, age, religion, disability, national origin or race. I also handle wage and overtime disputes, employment contracts, public-sector employee issues, and disability and workers’ compensation issues. I counsel clients about their rights and options. I also provide advocacy for them, including representation in mediations, arbitrations and litigation. My clients are primarily individuals. They usually need advice in handling personnel matters and resolving disputes. Two paralegals assist me in my work at my office.
3. As an attorney, I protect the innovations and inventions of my clients. I represent both plaintiffs and defendants in trade-mark, trade-secret and copyright infringement suits in both state and federal courts. I have a good deal of experience in domain-name disputes. I carry out international trade-mark and service-mark registrations and do availability searches and clearances of marks, trade names and logos. My work also involves providing counselling to photographers, architects, graphic designers and creators of fine art. I try to give them an understanding of the laws and procedures that affect them and their businesses. I also serve as a trial consultant and expert witness in IP law. For bigger cases requiring additional staffing and resources, I have a good working relationship with a large IP firm and can arrange representation under this firm if a client requests it. This requires a separate retainer agreement.
4. I’m a senior partner in a large law firm. My main areas of expertise are competition law and international trade law. I advise domestic and international clients on all aspects of competition and international trade laws, including domestic and multi-jurisdictional merger transactions, criminal cartel cases, and trade and pricing practices. I represent clients before the Competition Tribunal in merger transactions. I advise clients on a regular basis with respect to restrictive trade practices under the Competition Act. Some of the industries my clients come from include transportation, steel, pulp and paper, telecommunications, media and entertainment, financial services, electronic products and services, food services, and consumer products. On a regular basis I write papers and hold presentations for business and professional audiences on various topics dealing with competition and international trade law.
5.I’m a shareholder in my firm and am head of my firm’s Litigation Division. I represent landlords, tenants, developers and contractors and have tried many cases (mostly to successful conclusion) in court or arbitration. I assist clients with all types of real-estate-related litigation, including lease and contract disputes, mortgage foreclosures, property-tax disputes and land-use disputes. My practice also involves all types of real-estate transactions. In addition to lecturing and writing about real-estate issues for professional groups, including lawyers, accountants, lenders and real-estate professionals, I teach courses on real-estate law for law students at the local university. I’m an active member of several professional organisations, including the state and national bar associations, to name but two.
4. Work of lawyers at firms