I start Part 3 of UK Blawg Review #10 with another podcast to highlight the value of podcasting as a medium for lawyers who may not have the time to blog. Podcast or be a podcastee?
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There are many things in life more worth while than money. One of these things is to be brought up in this our England, which is still “the envy of less happier lands”. I do not believe it is for the benefit of children to be uprooted from England and transported to another country simply to avoid tax… Many a child has been ruined by being given too much. The avoidance of tax may be lawful, but it is not yet a virtue.
Lord Denning MR
Re Weston’s Settlements, [1969] 1 Ch 223
Practice Blogs from the profession
It is good to see practising lawyers providing high quality analysis and communicating their expertise through the use of blogs. The UK Human Rights blog from 1 Crown Office Row, The UKSC blog which analyses all the Supreme Court decisions and now 4 Breams Buildings has a monthly digest of cases from the Court of Appeal – all free to view.
The Panopticon blog from 11 KBW’s Information Law Practice Group, led by Timothy Pitt-Payne QC, Anya Proops and Robin Hopkins, is a blog I visit often. A recent post “Yo, Blair!” Bush/Blair conversations and the Iraq war is typical of the coverage as is..THE MINISTERIAL VETO STRIKES AGAIN – BUT THIS TIME NOT IN RESPECT OF CABINET MINUTES. A useful resource and a good example of a set of Chambers raising their profile through the use of a practice oriented professional coverage blog.
But even solo practitioners are providing remarkable practice oriented blogs in their specialist field – some of which I note now and others in the various sections of this review.
Shireen Smith of Azrights heads her practice and produces a meaty blog on Intellectual Property law. New cookie law no longer an issue following an ICO backtrack? sheds light on the issue of cookies.
Another excellent blog on intellectual property law – Ipso Jure – is the brainchild of solicitor Dr Peter Groves – author of a very fine dictionary on IP.
And Nearly Legal – a blog on Housing Law started many years ago by a lawyer who was then ‘nearly legal’ but is now fully qualified. The blog has grown in size with additional contributors into a formidable resource on Housing Law. I found this recent post interesting: The Unbeatable Litigant in Person*
Solicitor Tessa Shepperson in her Landlord Law blog asks: Are you REALLY SURE you understand tenancy law properly?
More blogs from practitioners are highlighted in the various sections below…
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Time for a bit of light relief?
So there was Mr. Jarvis, in the second week, in this hotel with no house party at all, and no one could speak English, except himself. He was very disappointed, too, with the skiing. […] There were no ordinary length skis. There were only mini-skis about 3 ft. long. So he did not get his skiing as he wanted to. […] He did not have the nice Swiss cakes which he was hoping for. The only cakes for tea were potato crisps and little dry nut cakes. The yodler evening consisted of one man from the locality who came in his working clothes for a little while, and sang four or five songs very quickly. […] Mr. Jarvis has only a fortnight’s holiday in the year. He books it far ahead, and looks forward to it all that time. He ought to be compensated for the loss of it.
Lord Denning
Jarvis v. Swans Tours Ltd. [1973] Q.B. 233 (C.A.)
Leveson continues to shed light and amusement on the nefarious deeds of press barons and the snivelling and craven behaviour of recent governments and politicians. Former prime minister Tony Blair admitted that he did not wish to incur the wrath and vengeance of the press by taking them on – preferring instead to ‘manage the press’. Prime minister, Police horse fancier and enthusiastic ‘teen texter’ (LOL) Camcorderdirect, presiding over an ubershambles of a coalition government, is to to appear at Leveson soon. I have already bought the popcorn.
I have been a fan of RollonFriday.com since the early days – wasting industrial amounts of time on the discussion board as ‘Brigadier Grappa’ and enjoying the pleasures of good company at RoF drinks sessions. Their Friday news – not strictly a blog – is always amusing – and Laura and Frank have taken to blogging within the RoF site.
Frank, continuing a RoF tradition of some time, has taken a pop at my old mate Nigel Savage, CEO of the newly ‘private sector vulture capitalist owned College of Law’: Slim pickings at the College of Law as Chief Exec takes £100k hit (You may have to scroll down)
And while Legal Cheek does serious – always worth a look for the more surreal and astonishing behaviour of lawyers: City Law Website RollOnFriday Finally Admits That It’s Edited By An Ashurst Partner < Good stuff..amused me.
Time to hit the blogs and be serious again…
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What is the argument on the other side? Only this, that no case has been found in which it has been done before. That argument does not appeal to me in the least. If we never do anything which has not been done before, we shall never get anywhere. The law will stand still whilst the rest of the world goes on; and that will be bad for both.
Lord Denning MR
Packer v. Packer [1954]
Legal Bizzle, who has changed jobs recently, has returned to the blogging arena (fray?) with his usual style and panache: When is an alteration not an alteration?
Exciting news about public sector outsourcing (well, it’s relative) draws me back to the blog . This time it’s Serco, fingered by the Guardian (EXCLUSIVELY!) for alleged misconduct in the performance of a contract to supply out of hours GP services in Cornwall.
Tom Kilroy a solicitor turned GC and now acting CEO of a large public company provides insight into the commercial world of legal practice. In a recent post: Lies, damn lies and … metrics
Tom considers the definition of the word ‘metrics’ and concludes:
“The word “metrics” is so commonly used in modern business life that nobody thinks they need a definition of the term. It hardly occurred to me to look it up before starting this blog. But we probably ought to, because there’s a fair bit of groupthink on this topic. If you open the Oxford English Dictionary, once you’ve made it past the definition of the “metric system”, which remains a surprisingly lively political topic, you’ll find “metrics (in business)” defined as: “a set of figures or statistics that measure results”. That’s short, but it will probably do.”
In-house GC at the FT, LegalBrat has moved his black look blog to a cleaner white look. There is a great deal of analysis on his old blog of great value and he continues to entertain on his new blog with: 5.15 k/o – what a FArce
‘Serial’ tweeter (in a good way), highly educated and well qualified, Dr Shibley Rahman runs the Legal Aware blog and is a keen supporter of all things blogging. In a recent post he considers: Any successful company ignores the value of its workers and employees perilously
While some counted the cost in billable hours of all those judges and lawyers hiking around London recently ( I indulged in a bit of speculation on the matter myself as I sipped my cuppa) – Louise Restell gives a flavour of what the recent London Legal Walk was like: Team Justice Gap on the London Legal Walk
I am a fan of the sardonic eye and voice of John Busby, legal-two, who is @legaltwo on twitter I particularly liked the picture : Good Fucking Design Advice. You may have to scroll down as I couldn’t find a permalink to that pic on the blog – but it is worth scrolling down anyway – there are some remarkable images collected together in the blog
Good to see British academic Carole McCartney doing Blawg Review – The US original carnival of law blogs which I have had the pleasure of writing for six times so far: Blawg Review #323 – Memorial Day, the Rule of Law, & Human Rights. Dr Carole McCartney is a Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Leeds; Founder, University of Leeds Innocence Project < Powerful stuff. A ‘must read’ for anyone interested in human rights, Amnesty and wrongful convictions.
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“We intend to lead a government of purpose and direction so that we can offer the people of this nation the opportunity to move forward to independence, democracy and equality.”
Alex Salmond
Time for a trip across the border to the land of my ancestors… Scotland.
My parents were Scots. I was educated in Scotland – extraordinarily rendited at the age of seven from Singapore (My father worked for Dunlop) and detained first at a very strange prep school run by seriously odd people and thence to Trinity College Glenalmond (As it was then known), founded by that wonderful rogue Sir William Ewart Gladstone, which I enjoyed – but also delight in describing as a detention centre (The Headmaster is called ‘Warden’) I was consigned to – using the famous John Mortimer QC aphorism – “For a crime I did not commit”.
I am not convinced that it is a great idea for Scotland to go independent. It would seem that the majority of Scots (thus far) don’t think it is a ‘brilliant’ idea either. Devo Max seems the better proposition – best of all worlds? My Nat friends will be writing to me, I suspect, to correct the ‘error of my ways’
And here’s a taste of Scots blogger thinking…
Lallands Peat Worrier sheds light on how those political Scots get off with this post on Langside, recounted…
But he is a fine writer and does some very serious law. This post was most interesting: Can Holyrood repudiate the UK Supreme Court’s civil jurisdiction?
LoveandGarbage veers between the sane and surreal – writing in depth about serious issues and then going off piste on the SNOW. Occupying his mind in recent weeks: Possibly the finest legal news story of the year so far: Fitba players, eh? Bloody hell – “‘Out of breath’ footballer Garry O’Connor caught by police after 300m dash”
SCOTS LAW NEWS is a very good starting point to be kept abreast of law issues and topical matters… from Edinburgh University.
See: Death of Megrahi, Hector MacQueen
Ian Hamilton QC – ‘a drunk man looks at the thistle’ is always worth a read even if you know nothing about law….
Read.. you’ll be amused and informed
The Lockerbie Case
And if you really want to get to grips with The Lockerbie case…and it may be a good idea for US Senators to do so… then you can’t do much better than this… blog by Robert Black QC FRSE who became Professor of Scots Law in the University of Edinburgh in 1981 having previously been in practice at the Scots Bar.
Technollama asks: Should jailed convicts have access to social media?
The Firm (Scots law magazine) focuses on topical issues and news. The place to go for news on Scots Law.
Gavin Ward is a serious blogger…Wardblog: great stuff
Legaleaglemhm’s Blog Does what it says on the tin…. and she is a keen and enthusiastic supporter of blogging: T minus 9 Days and Counting – I would walk 6000 miles ( not a song by the Proclaimers) though we are Scottish
And a few more excellent blogs for you to read from Scotland…
Alan Tench Public Law and Devolution: The Queen’s speech and the UK Government’s legislative programme for 2012-13
Legal History blog: Packed with Scots and other legal history
Eric Clive’s European Private Law News: Rome conference on “The Making of European Private Law: Why, How, What, Who”
Edinburgh Commercial Law blog: Thoughts on frustration of contract in Scots law
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Shagger is right. And… no.. I don’t have any plans to swim across The Thames. Part 4 tomorrow / Thursday.
I’m or for a walk and coffee in the sun.
And don’t forget.. you can win a prize in the ‘Caption Competition’ – details in Part 1
I am delighted to be hosting #10 of the UK Blawg Review roundup
(Albeit in 3ish parts!)
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