Women in the law

It was interesting to hear Vince Cable’s recent announcement that he is prepared to consider legislation to enforce the government’s target for female representation on the boards of FTSE 100 companies. Why? Because after an initial surge, following the publication of the Davies report in 2011, the pace of change has slowed. The target is 25% by 2015.

And how are lawyers doing against that target? 9.4% female equity partners across the top 100 is hardly a figure to shout from the rooftops.  Less than the current figure of 9.6% women FTSE 250 board members. Not so great.

Please click here to read more.

Need to know: who owns graffiti?

This article is reproduced here by kind permission of Property Week

Last month a Banksy mural that had been carved out of a wall of a shop in north London, turned up at an auction in the US.

To view an examination of landowners’ rights over artwork on buildings, please click here.

Article available at propertyweek.com.

Matching the lender to the loan

That was the title of the piece that I did in 2011, commenting upon unusual and unexpected new entrants into the lending market. The traditional lenders, banks, were for the most part,  on the floor and new cash – rich entities were taking their place. The stock market was sluggish and many thought that the route to return Nirvana was central London residential. And so it proved for some.

So what has changed? Well, everything and nothing.  Continue reading…

Who really owns Banksy artwork?

This article is reproduced here by kind permission of The Times. 

An inspection of the lease shows the property issues may be fairly clear-cut, the intellectual property issues less so

You know that you are a dyed-in-the-wool lawyer when, hearing about the sale of a Banksy artwork carefully carved out of the side wall of a Poundland in Wood Green, North London, your first thought is not the sad loss to the community but whether or not the owner (if indeed it was the owner) did have the legal right to remove part of the wall and sell the artwork.

I wanted to see the Poundland lease…

Section 20 – what Managing Agents need to know

The property management industry has been left in disarray following the decision reached in the case of Philipps and Goddard v Francis [2012] late last year.

The fact that managing agents must now consult with residential tenants in relation to ALL works, even standard routine repairs, could have a detrimental effect on the industry as a whole – and, ironically, tenants are also in the firing line as, while the situation is not reversed, they will be hit by the extra 10% charge managing agents will no doubt seek for these repairs, in addition to their standard management fee.

Although the decision is likely to be appealed, the process is going to be a lengthy one – and in the interim managing agents need to act quickly if they are to avoid getting in to trouble. My colleague Janice Northover shares her expert insight on Letting Agent Today advising on what their next steps should be…

Please click here to read her piece in full.

GUEST POST : Of newts, mushrooms, bats and knotweed

News this week that the £90m Monks Cross Shopping Centre development in York has been delayed by the appearance of a rare newt on the site shows once again how it is sometimes the tiniest things that can bring development projects to a juddering halt. In the past we have seen bats, orchids, mushrooms, slowworms and all manner of other “natural environmental issues” hold up building works. This put me in mind of a piece my colleague Dominic Whelan wrote for Estates Gazette last year – nice and colourful and I thought you would enjoy the opportunity to read it here…

Seeing the light

News that the Law Commission has launched its consultation on the proposed abolition of Rights to Light caused a flurry of excitement. My phone rang off the hook the morning the news broke. The law in this area is currently a mess – so much uncertainty that developers are often forced to plan two schemes at the same time, one that interferes with these rights and one that doesn’t. The Government hopes that reviewing and clarifying the legal position in relation to  these ancient rights will help developers and in turn kick-start economic growth.

As I said to The Times’ legal editor Frances Gibb, the consultation is to be welcomed with open arms. You can read my comments in her news piece here.

You can also read my Opinion piece in The Times here.