I have taken to eating an excellent Chili con carne at Mazar, my caff / restaurant of choice for breakfast and lunch, in Battersea Square. The problem I have is that when I find a meal I enjoy I tend to eat it to death until I can face no more. I had some Chili con carne for breakfast the other morning – which raised a few eyebrows, but there we are.
I have no theme this week, so I shall write as I find….
How I Became a Fake Lawyer
This article from Big Legal Brain in the United States is my pick of the week. Not only does it parody the social meedja law mavens beautifully, it addresses a very interesting issue about lawyers who use twitter to push a persona for the purpose of their professional work which may not be entirely ‘accurate’. I urge you to read it, if only to enjoy some good writing and, if you can fit it into your billable day, allow yourself a laugh.
Flawging and other legal matters…
I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours this afternoon doing a podcast with Antonin Pribetic, a Canadian trial lawyer and author of The Trial Warrior blog. At the end of the podcast we talked about Twitter and the use by lawyers of social media generally and the issue of anonymity on the web. We shall return to theme theme of “Flawging” (as Antonin puts it) in a future podcast. In the meantime… read this if you want to know about “Flawging”: My Gift to the Social Media Law Marketers: The Flawg
On the subject of podcasts – I have done several this week and plan to podcast twice a week going forward during law term time.
#Without Prejudice – The Law Podcast 2: ECJ Insurance case – Women in the law – Sexism – Contempt of Court – Libel reform
This is the second of our new fortnightly Without Prejudice (recorded at The Staterooms with wine to improve our thinking?) series with Carl Gardner and David Allen Green. Our guest this week was Catrin Griffiths, editor of The Lawyer. David Allen Green managed to knock over a 400 year old Chinese bowl – a slight crashing sound was picked up by the microphone towards the end of the podcast. The bowl didn’t break. I could not resist telling him that it was a priceless Ming dynasty bowl of considerable value. (It was 400 years old, but not of considerable value) Being an academic lawyer, my mind then turned to nervous shock litigation – but both bowl and David survived.
Other podcasts this week…
Legal Profession Lawcast (3): Suzanne Dibble, founder of Law4mumpreneurs
Legal Profession Lawcast (2): Neil Rose on ABS – Jackson – Funding – Regulation and the state of the profession today
UK lawyer admits in US trial to bribing Nigerian officials
The Guardian: Jeffrey Tesler pleaded guilty to two counts related to the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a court in Houston, Texas
A London lawyer pleaded guilty on Friday to taking part in a huge international bribery conspiracy that lasted a decade.
Jeffrey Tesler, 62, who operated from shabby offices in Tottenham, north London, admitted helping to steer bribes worth more than $130m (£80m) to Nigerian officials and politicians to land big energy contracts.
He pleaded guilty to two counts related to the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when he appeared in a courtroom in Houston, Texas, on Friday.
The description ‘shabby’ in relation to offices caught my eye.
Unfortunately…I am not able to tell you about my quote of the week…
John Hemming MP used parliamentary privilege to reveal that Fred ‘The Shred’ Goodwin, late of the people’s favourite partly owned bank, RBS, had obtained an injunction which was reported as preventing even the fact that he was a banker being reported on. I have no idea if this is true. I haven’t seen a copy of the ‘superinjunction’. This allowed The Telegraph to use qualified privilege to report on ‘a proceeding of parliament’ and blow the secret. Twitter then ran riot with Fred the Shred jokes (Fred ‘The Trended’ Goodwin?) and some bloggers were unwise enough (arguably) to comment or speculate on the reasons for the injunction, it was reported. I shall confine myself to simply reporting the fact that John Hemming MP did what he did and The Telegraph did what they did.
The Telegraph has gone for broke, however, with this….
Gagging order by Sir Fred cannot stop net chatter
The Telegraph: Judges are facing growing pressure to lift a super-injunction obtained by Sir Fred Goodwin amid speculation on the internet about the nature of the information he is trying to protect.
With libel reform coming (discussed in the Without Prejudice podcast this week) an a report on superinjunctions from Master of The Rolls, Lord Neuberger, on the immediate horizon these issues will, no doubt, be addressed.
Joshua Rozenberg weighs in…
When you can’t call Fred Goodwin a banker, whatever next?
The Guardian: Goodwin’s injunction to prevent him being identified as a banker raises questions about how much we should protect privacy
Briefly…before I go off on a ‘frolic of my own’ to less serious matters… this story in The Guardian is important on #metgate. The net is closing in?
Murder trial collapse exposes News of the World links to police corruption
The Guardian: David Cameron hired Andy Coulson despite knowing that as editor he employed Jonathan Rees, who paid police for stories
I am a fan of all the legal newspapers. James Dean of The Law Society Gazette often comes up with stories which I enjoy reading and this story was a ‘Go to the top of the class and hand out the pencils job’….the comments are also amusing….
Lawyers are not just motivated by money
I extract one comment which I particularly enjoyed – extracting about half of the comment…
Ha ha!!
Submitted by Andrew Murphy on Fri, 11/03/2011 – 12:01.Well thirty years working as a Conveyancer in a number of firms tells me something different. The Lawyers I have had the misfortune to come across have been very much motivated by money. They thought nothing of customer service. To them the clients they were buying houses for were just file numbers.
And I just had to end with this story from tomorrow’s Mail on Sunday….
Spending watchdog’s £4k travel expenses for a one minute walk from his hotel
The Mail on Sunday reports: The Quango chief charged with curbing wasteful public spending is being paid a £4,070-a-year ‘travel allowance’ – even though his daily commute is a one-minute walk between his office and a four-star hotel.
Sir,
I am somewhat confused. Chili? Surely Mazars is more renowned for its Lebanese cuisine first and foremost?
Good God man, when in Rome….. or in this cae Baabda, Hasbaya, Marjeeyoun or even Beirut.
At least have the decency to crack a window.
cheery,
JB
[…] so-called “news story” is really nothing more than flawging. As Wallace points […]