LPC - Interviewing Assessment.

He's got game.

Completed my final LPC interviewing assessment today. An actor was hired by the LPC provider as the Client (interviewee) and I was the interviewer. Looking forward to the DVD.

I got a mark for wearing a suit. Nice! My scenario was regarding a partner in a partnership requiring legal advice on a possible departure form the parntership.

Here is one I prepared for in advance:

QUESTIONS (to ask Client)

Who is in the Pship?

History of the Pship?

PAgreement?

Why do they want to leave?

Client’s financial situation?

Financial position of Partnership?

Financial position of Ps?

Relationship with other Ps

Future plans of client?

Your concerns?

Your views? 

THE LAW

No Pship agreement =

Terms of the PA1890 take precedence and Pship should be run according to the PA1890

Pship agreement =

Provisions of the PAgreement can displace/ vary PA1890… PAgreement has precedence.

- Non written PAgreement

1. Everything shared equally, entitlement to capital / profits.

2. Work input – all work full time

3. No fixed duration of Pship = Pship at will.

OPTIONS

1. Retire from Pship (as it is a Pship at will)

P can retire and leave the Pship --> giving notice to the other Ps.

· Remaining Ps can agree to purchase outgoing P’s share, Pship remains (partial dissolution)

(terms would need to be negotiated between the parties).

OR

· If they don’t a Pship fully dissolved. Assets of Pship sold, and P would be entitled to their share of the capital in the pship.

Positives

+ Should realise value of the share.

+ Can force a sale of the outgoing P’s share.

Negatives

- May not get full value of the assets of the pship on sale of Pshp assets.

- Pship may be profitable in future, missing out on share of profits

-Do they really want to end the Pship?

- Ps may not be able to afford to purchase the share.

- May get a greater value for the share when the Pship is doing better in the future.

2. Indemnification against the existing debts of the firm from existing Ps.

Partners liable for debts of Pship incurred whilst they were Ps.

Partners jointly & severably liable for debts of firm

Indemnification prevents this. Creditors can still sue the ex- P but the Ps who entered into the agreement would pay.

Positives

+not liable for Pships debts and liabilities incurred whilst client was a P

Negatives

-existing Ps may not agree to this.

- existing Ps may not have money to do so

3. New Partnership Agreement

New agreement amending how it is run.

…every decision requires unanimous agreement.

Positives

+ Pship may be profitable in future, entitlement to the profits & share of capital would increase

Negatives

More debts could be incurred, which client would be liable for.

Profitability and value of assets may decrease so clients share may decrease. 

4. Do nothing.

Positives

Could turn the business around.

FOLLOW UP TASKS

1. Client Care Letter

2. Draft a Pship Agreement

3. Value the clients share in the Pship, need to look at the accounts.

4. Arrange for the retirement of the P

5. Draft indemnification agreement for P

COSTS and TIME FRAME

New PAgreement – 2 Hours – £300 + VAT – All Ps need to agree to it. Conflict of interest issue.

Value of Client’s share in Pship – 1 Hour –£150+ VAT

Arrange notice for P to retire and leave the Pship – 1 Hour – £150 + VAT

Indemnity Arrangement – 1 Hour – £150 + VAT – Ps need to agree to this.

Manage Sale of Pship Assets – if remaining Ps don’t purchase outgoing Ps share.

4 Hours - £600 + VAT

18/2/2011

Bought 6448 Centamin at £1.21

Centamin is currently the biggest mover on the stock exchange.

21/02/2011 - 9.59am

Holding my position. Price: £1.2890 - £420 potential profit.

The reported miner strike at their Egyptian Gold Mine was over exaggerated. The market reacted with a 13% drop in share price from £1.40 to £1.20. Further news of what happened revealed the situation was not as serious as thought.

Centamin have confirmed the situation has not impacted their Gold Mining operations in the slightest.

Will wait until the price recovers and close my position.

Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs and Centamin Egypt Limited

Centamin's Mining Fleet (Source: Centamin.com)

Mulling over the political uncertainties of Egypt's situation I decided to invest in Centamin Egypt Limited.

Centamin claim they are not exposed to the current political crisis, but as the markets are run by confidence it now means Centamin is relatively undervalued.

10/2/11 - Bought 5698 Shares at 130p

10/2/11- 5pm - Share price has risen to 140p --> Currently making £506.02

All in a days work. I await Hosni Mubarak's speech tonight, hopefully he will resign immediately instating current Vice President Omar Suleiman, allowing for a more stable Egpyt.

Centamin Egypt Limited is a mineral exploration development and mining company dual listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE:CEY) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:CEE).

___________________________________________________________________

Update :

Mubarak has now left, Centamin has responded positively. Closing the position.

11/02/11 - Sold 5698 at £1.49

Total profit inclusive of Stamp Duty = £990 / 13% return on investment, over 2 days.

Hopefully Egypt will get social reforms and leadership that they need, as they did under Former President Anwar El Sadat.

Unfair Dismissal Checklist

UNFAIR DISMISSAL

• Under s94 Employment Right Act 1996, [Employees name] has a right not be be unfairly dismissed

• For an unfair dismissal claim, [Employees name] must be a qualifying employee i.e have one years continuous employment – which he [is/isn’t]

• Here the dismissal is:….

Actual dismissal (dismissal by the employer with or without notice)

Constructive (the employer has committed a repudiatory breach of an express or implied term of the contract)

• Was the 3 step procedure for dismissal complied with?Yes?

• Was there a potentially fair reason for the dismissal?Yes?

The most likely one in this case being:

[pick one]

(a) The capability or qualifications of the employee for doing work of the kind he was employed to do (this could include incompetence, or inability to do the job by reason of illness or injury);

(did the e’or warn the e’ee and give him a chance to improve?

-Did he provide adequate training?

-Could he have been moved to a job within the e’ee’s competence?

-Illness, did the e’or consult e’ee about duration and nature of illness?

(b) the conduct of the employee (this must generally relate to conduct within the employment – outside behaviour will only be relevant if it has a direct bearing on the employee’s fitness to do the job);

-thorough investigation

-employee should hava a chance to state his case

-only if misconduct is gross or persistent

-ACAS Guidelines consulted?

(c) the employee was redundant (in this case the employee will be entitled to a redundancy payment (see below));

(d) the employee could not continue to work in the position held without contravening some statutory enactment (eg where a lorry driver loses his driving licence);

(e) some other substantial reason justifying the dismissal of an employee holding the position which the employee held (it is not possible to give a comprehensive list of such reasons, but this category has been held to include dismissal where the employee refuses to accept a reorganization affecting his working hours and a dismissal arising out of a personality clash between employees); and

(f) retirement – if it takes place at or after 65 (or a lower age which is objectively justified by the employer) and it meets procedural requirements, such as complying with a duty to inform the employee of the intended retirement date and of the employee’s right to request to work beyond that date.

• S98(4) ERA 1996, the tribunal must decide..did the employer act reasonably?

Was dismissal a reasonable response?

Warn, redeploy, chance to improve, train

Misconduct discovered after dismissal, e’or cant rely on it but it may reduce compensation available

Remedies:

Basic award: -

Above 41– multiply by 1½

22 -40 – multiply by 1

below 22 – multiply by ½

Falls into what category?

No. of years he’s ½ , 1 or 1 ½

been in that category x x 310 (statutory minimum)

Compensatory award

Calculated in light of

immediate loss of net wages from the date of the dismissal to the date of the hearing, assuming the employee has not at that date got another job;

future loss of net wages – based on an estimate as to how long it might take the employee to get another job (assuming he has not yet done so);

loss of fringe benefits; and

loss of statutory protection. In any new job, the employee will have to start building up as against a future employer his statutory rights to a redundancy payment and unfair dismissal protection and a statutory minimum notice.

If the grievance, disciplinary or dismissal procedures haven’t completed and its e’ors fault?

• e’ee can get uplift of 10 – 50% on compensation

• But if non compliance is due to e’ee, - 10-50% decrease in compensation

Max is 60,600

WRONGFUL DISMISSAL

Is a common law claim based ib the employer terminatig the contract iun a way which is in breach of the contract of employment

What type of contract is it?

Indefinite – terminated with no or inadequate notice

Fixed term without break clause – termination before the contract expires

Has notice been given properly?

Notice period, if tye notice period is shorter than the one in ERA 1996 s86 the longer one prevails unless agreed otherwise

Stat minimum

1 months continuous employment - 1 weeks notice

2 years continuous employment - 2 weeks notice

up to 12

Remedies

Damages for breach of contract (out party back to position they would be in had contract not been broken)

REDUNDANCY

• Must be qualified employee (2 years continuous employment)

• Refer to employment tribunal within a 6 month period from reduncancy

• Prove that he’s been dismissed actually or constructively

• It becomes presumed that the e’ee was dismissed for redundancy

Is the reason within one of these 3? i.e within s139 ERA 1996…

(a) complete closedown (the fact that the employer has ceased or intends to cease to carry on the business for the purposes of which the employee was employed by him);

(b) partial closedown (the fact that the employer has ceased or intends to cease to carry on that business in the place where the employee was so employed); and

(c) overmanning or a change in the type of work undertaken (the fact that the requirements of the business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind, or for employees to carry out work of a particular kind in the place

where the employee was employed by the employer, have ceased or diminished, or are expected to cease or diminish).

Employee entitled to a redundancy payment but may lose it if he’s nreasonably rejected an offer for suitale alternative emplyoyment

Happy New Year and Blog Statistics

We all love statistics, well I do. So here is some self-indulgence.

Our Law in Action's page views for the month of December 2010:

Pageviews yesterday 1

Pageviews for whole month 101

Pageviews all time history 159

Looks like you readers are enjoying the regular postings

Here are our global audience figures (for the period May 2010- January 2011)

United Kingdom 106 United States 20 Russia 15 Croatia 4 Germany 3 Singapore 3 Israel 2 Slovenia 2 Hong Kong 1 Ireland 1

I look forward to posting on a broader range of legal issues as well as some discussions on trading in 2011-2012.