A notary public of the common law is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with general financial transactions, estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business. A notary's main functions are to validate the signature of a person ; administer oaths and affirmations; take affidavits and statutory declarations, including from witnesses; authenticate the execution of certain classes of documents; take acknowledgments ; provide notice of foreign drafts; provide exemplifications and notarial copies; and, to perform certain other official acts depending on the jurisdiction. Such transactions are known as notarial acts, or more commonly, notarizations. The term notary public only refers to common-law notaries and should not be confused with civil-law notaries.
William Jardine was a Scottish opium trader and physician who co-founded the Hong Kong–based conglomerate Jardine, Matheson & Co. Educated in medicine at the University of Edinburgh, in 1802 Jardine obtained a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. The next year, he became a surgeon's mate aboard the Brunswick belonging to the East India Company, and set sail for India. In May 1817, he abandoned medicine for trade.
Civil-law notaries, or Latin notaries, are lawyers of noncontentious private civil law who draft, take, and record legal instruments for private parties, provide legal advice and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers with the authentication power of the State. As opposed to most notaries public, their common-law counterparts, civil-law notaries are highly trained, licensed practitioners providing a full range of regulated legal services, and whereas they hold a public office, they nonetheless operate usually—but not always—in private practice and are paid on a fee-for-service basis. They often receive generally the same education as attorneys at civil law with further specialized education but without qualifications in advocacy, procedural law, or the law of evidence, somewhat comparable to solicitor training in certain common-law countries.
A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems.
The Worshipful Company of Scriveners is an ancient Livery Company of the City of London. Originally known as the Mysterie of the Writers of the Court Letter and, since its incorporation, as the Master Wardens and Assistants of the Company of Scrivenors of the Cittie of London [sic], the Scriveners' Company remains one of the few City livery companies continuing to influence professional standards, namely that of scrivener notary. The Company received its first ordinances in 1373 and its royal charter was granted by King James I on 28 January 1617.
The Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, also known as the Apostille Convention, is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). The Apostille Convention is intended to simplify the procedure through which a document, issued in one of the contracting states, can be certified for legal purposes in the other contracting states of the convention. A certification under the convention is called an apostille or Hague apostille. An apostille is an international certification comparable to a notarisation, and may supplement a local notarisation of the document. If the Convention applies between two states, an apostille issued by the state of origin is sufficient to certify the document, and removes the need for further certification by the destination state.
A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a partnership in which some or all partners have limited liabilities. It therefore can exhibit aspects of both partnerships and corporations. In an LLP, each partner is not responsible or liable for another partner's misconduct or negligence. This distinguishes an LLP from a traditional partnership under the UK Partnership Act 1890, in which each partner has joint liability. In an LLP, some or all partners have a form of limited similar to that of the shareholders of a corporation. Depending on the jurisdiction, however, the limited liability may extend only to the negligence or misconduct of the other partners, and the partners may be personally liable for other liabilities of the firm or partners.
Linklaters LLP is a British multinational law firm, headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1838, it is one of the five prestigious "Magic Circle" law firms known for their corporate and financial expertise. It currently employs over 3100 lawyers across 31 offices in 21 countries.
A certified copy is a copy of a primary document that has on it an endorsement or certificate that it is a true copy of the primary document. It does not certify that the primary document is genuine, only that it is a true copy of the primary document.
Denton Wilde Sapte LLP was an international law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It merged with the United States–based law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in September 2010, forming SNR Denton. At the time of the merger, Denton Wilde Sapte had 16 offices and employed around 610 lawyers.
Burges Salmon LLP is a law firm based in Bristol, England.
Ince & Co was a United Kingdom-based holding company with a core business in legal services, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange. The company also offered complementary services in accounting, financial services, consulting, and pensions advice. It was previously known as Ince Gordon Dadds LLP, following the acquisition of Ince & Co by Gordon Dadds Group LLP, and rebranded as The Ince Group in August 2019.
Hill Dickinson is a British international commercial law firm headquartered in Liverpool, United Kingdom. With more than 200 partners and 950 staff, the firm operates from six UK offices and four overseas offices.
Blake Morgan LLP is a large full-service commercial law firm with offices in Cardiff, London, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading and Southampton in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 2014 following a merger between the Cardiff-based Morgan Cole and the Portsmouth-based Blake Lapthorn. It employs approximately 415 lawyers and 145 other fee-earners. It has 130 partners. It is registered with the Law Society of England and Wales.
Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited is a Hong Kong–based, Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange and Bermuda Stock Exchange. The majority of its business interests are in Asia, and its subsidiaries include Jardine Pacific, Jardine Motors, Hongkong Land, Jardine Strategic Holdings, DFI Retail Group, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Jardine Cycle & Carriage and Astra International. It set up the Jardine Scholarship in 1982 and Mindset, a mental health-focused charity, in 2002.
In the United States, a notary public is a person appointed by a state government, e.g., the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, or in some cases the state legislature, and whose primary role is to serve the public as an impartial witness when important documents are signed. Since the notary is a state officer, a notary's duties may vary widely from state to state and in most cases, a notary is barred from acting outside his or her home state unless they have a commission there as well.
Sir David Kennedy Newbigging, OBE, DL is a British businessman and Hong Kong politician born in China. He was the Tai-pan of Jardine Matheson & Co, the leading British trading firm in East Asia and unofficial member of the Executive Council and the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
The International Union of Notaries is a non-governmental organisation. It aims to promote, co-ordinate and develop the function and activities of Notary throughout the world.
A notarial act is any written narration of facts (recitals) drawn up by a notary, notary public or civil-law notary authenticated by the notary's signature and official seal and detailing a procedure which has been transacted by or before the notary in their official capacity. A notarial act is the only lawful means of proving those facts of which it is the recognized record, whereas on other matters it is usually inadmissible, because, being beyond the powers entrusted to the notary by law, it is non-official. In most common-law countries, multiple-page acts are bound together using a sewn or knotted ribbon, the ends of which are secured by a wafer impressed with the notary's seal. This is called annexing or annexure.
In 2019, the top 50 Dutch law firms had around 4,476 attorneys and the top 30 law firms had around 183 notaries and 527 candidate notaries. According to the Chambers and Partners legal directory, the top five law firms in the Netherlands are Allen & Overy Netherlands, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Houthoff, Loyens & Loeff and Stibbe. Every year advocatie.nl publishes a list of the 50 biggest law firms in headcount.
