Blawg Review #304 – A very good one

Blawg Review #304 – A very good one   You don’t need to be a US lawyer to enjoy this excellent Blawg Review Six years ago today, on March 28, 2005, a major earthquake registering 8.7 on the Richter Scale occurred off the coast of Sumatra, in Indonesia.  It came little more than three months [...]

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Muttley Dastardly LLP (Episode) 19: Retention of staff and human capital maximisation

MEMORANDUM EYES ONLY To:  The Partners From: Dr Erasmus Strangelove, Director of Education, Strategy and Psyops RE: Retention of staff and human capital maximisation Gentlemen, 1. I am reviewing currently our human operational asset base for the purpose of refreshing the stock. This also ties in with an assessment of productivity of junior associate staff.  [...]

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Law Review: The Right to Protest – Free Press – No Win No fee

The fall out from the demonstrations last Saturday continues. The Guardian reported on the extraordinary behaviour of the Police dealing with the UKUncut protesters at Fortnum & Mason.  It may well be that a charge of trespass will be upheld – Fortnum & Mason, it is reported, lost £80,000 in trade, but, so far, of [...]

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Nonsense du Jour: I have no problem with… “principled thought-through political ‘violence’..” @PennyRed !

Like many, I am delighted that I live in a country which permits freedom of speech, protest and dissent. I don’t, like most, care for the mindless violence (or, indeed, any form of violence on the part of protestors or the state) as a means of persuasion to a view. Today I had the misfortune [...]

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Guest Post: Any complaints? Why the IPCC is failing us all

Any complaints?  Why the IPCC is failing us all Kevin Donoghue is a solicitor at Donoghue Solicitors, specializing in actions against the police compensation claims The IPCC has recently published its police complaint statistics for 2009/2010. Since the IPCC’s formation in 2004, every police force in the UK has recorded a rise in the number [...]

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Postcard from the Staterooms: RITZKRIEG!

I see a lot of weird stuff on the net every day…..  (I am on twitter)  but this was excellent: “Walcome tae the Scottish Pairlament wabsite” Being  A Scot – albeit one who has lived in London and other parts of England for thirty years – I rather liked this initiative from The Scottish Parliament. [...]

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Law Review: The Highest Court in the Land – Justice Makers

May I recommend this excellent (and fascinating programme) from the BBC.  Available, for the moment, on iPlayer. The Highest Court in the Land – Justice Makers You don’t need to be a lawyer to find this interesting.  I enjoyed it. A very interesting illustration of the principle in my tweet, below, came in the bank overdraft [...]

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Rive Gauche: Lord McNally advises Albanians on ‘Rule of Law’

I smiled wryly when I read this report from The Ministry of Justice website this evening. I smiled with some difficulty as problems from a very old head injury came home to roost this week and made it difficult for me to talk, let alone smile…  (Hence no ‘Without Prejudice’ podcast this week.  We shall [...]

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Law Review: SRA and BSB want aptitude tests – an excellent opportunity for law schools to run yet more courses?

Aptitude tests would be a positive step for BPTC and LPC students The Law Society Gazette’s Rachell Rothwell reports…. “Earlier today, the Bar Standards Board announced a new timetable for its plans to introduce an aptitude test for the Bar Profession Training Course (BPTC), to give time for the results of its second pilot to [...]

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Law Review: Budget summary for lawyers – and …extraordinary City attitudes to diversity?

Corporate lawyers are up in arms about a shift in the profession’s graduate recruitment strategy that could see them forced to mix with “riffraff”. “I did not study at Oxford and the LSE to end up working with people who graduated from Leicester or Queen Mary,” wrote one person on legalweek.com in response to the [...]

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Law Review: This… is why we need the Rule of Law

Photos show US soldiers in Afghanistan posing with dead civilians The Guardian: ‘Trophy’ pictures show US soldiers posing with corpses of Afghan civilians they are accused of killing for sport. The face of Jeremy Morlock, a young US soldier, grins at the camera, his hand holding up the head of the dead and bloodied youth [...]

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Law Review: No bar to the Bar – a good website from The Bar Council

While debate will continue on the chances of getting a tenancy (and this is to be encouraged)  – the Bar has  always been a competitive profession (certainly in my time in legal education of 30 years) – this new initiative following Lord Neuberger’s Diversity report is a good one. I am interested in becoming a [...]

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We go to war……. against Libya… and we’ll see what happens.

At least there is a UN resolution… this time. We will know soon enough if the action today works.  The PR war begins….. Sunday update….  

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So secret… you would not have been able to read about this but for…… an MP and a blogger

  On Thursday afternoon, in a back room of Parliament, history was made.  A few MPs found themselves a backbone; they found a way in which they could exercise their Freedom of Speech and perform their ancient duty, drawn from the Bill of Rights 1688, of redressing the grievances of the citizens who rely on [...]

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Law Review: Commission on a UK Bill of Rights …..and a mixed bag of law news

Commission on a UK Bill of Rights launched The Ministry of Justice announced today that an independent Commission to investigate the case for a UK Bill of Rights has been launched today by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Secretary of State for Justice Kenneth Clarke. The Guardian responded to this news with: Move for [...]

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Law Review: The Times engages with law bloggers – Transparency in Law

Pat Long in The Times has written a good piece on law blogging. I am in it… but more importantly…so are many others and the sentiment is encouraging.  Pleasingly, the  mainstream legal papers  (Guardian, Times, Legal Week, Law Society Gazette, The Lawyer) seem happy to engage with bloggers.  This can only benefit all.  The article [...]

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Lord Shagger writes… from Monaco…. it has been some time.

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Would anyone like to give some money to Comic Relief for this self portrait?

Charon Self Portrait (In Three Colours) 2010 Acrylics on canvas board 20 x 16 Charon, with new tache,  goes to a field in a yellow shirt and jeans on a sunny windy day in May and paints a glass of red wine.  That is all *** All you have to to do is undertake to [...]

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Law Review: Bradley Manning torture? – Fined for telling the truth – Cherie Booth QC

PFC Bradley Manning – Torture? On the 18 December 2010 Manning’s lawyer David E. Coombs, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army who served in Iraq (pictured), wrote a very clear and to the point blog post… A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning PFC Manning is currently being held in maximum custody. Since [...]

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Law Review: I appear to have committed a criminal offence in relation to the Census

I received the Census 2011 form through the post last week. Rather than waste even more time on this I decided to use the online form – which was extremely quick and far easier than faffing with the paper version which newspapers were reporting this morning had baffled 61% of the population. Relying on the [...]

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