Rive Gauche: Flawger, Flâneur and Friday frippery….

David Allen Green, solicitor, blogger, tweeter, legal correspondent for The New Statesman and now media correspondent for The Lawyer,  considers tweeting lawyers… and puts the boot in, indirectly, to the ‘flawgers’ by not mentioning them..

Twitter provides a poor “return on investment” for cynical lawyers and related professionals who just want to expand their internet presence as a commercial end in itself.  Indeed, such folk should probably do other things than waste time in trying to develop a Twitter account which then languishes with a few dozen followers at best….

Read…

For my part, I enjoy twitter.  I appear to have managed to find time over the last two to three years to rack up over 90,000 tweets. I enjoy the social interaction. I have met some great people through twitter – real life and virtually – and I enjoy the often interesting and amusing exchange of ideas and views.  I particularly enjoy ‘engaging’ with the more surreal tweeters, the un-reconstructed and the ‘pissed tweeters’ late at night.  I don’t take it too seriously and while WordPress posts my blog posts to twitter and I do the occasional follow up tweet, there is no doubt that twitter has brought visitors to my blog.  I had a look at the stats on that.  It would appear that about 5% of my visitors come through twitter.  Most of my readers don’t seem to tweet. I have little interest in lawyers or law firms (or any other tweeters) who simply broadcast their news or services…. in the syle… “Great shame about that Volcano erupting killing thousands… meanwhile, if we can help with your personal injury claim. 0898 1234567” and I have little interest in the “Flawgers” – a term coined by Antonin Pribetic of The Trial Warrior blog –  or snake oil social meedja gurus and mavens.  There is a great deal of comment and useful information, across a wide range of topics and subjects, out there on twitter – and long may that continue.

Although David Allen Green was kind enough to describe me as a ‘doyen of legal blogging’ – that is not how I would describe myself.  I think Antonin Pribetic’s description of me as a flâneur is more amusing…and probably more accurate….

Wikipedia notes: The term flâneur comes from the French masculine noun flâneur—which has the basic meanings of “stroller”, “lounger”, “saunterer”, “loafer”—which itself comes from the French verb flâner, which means “to stroll”. Charles Baudelaire developed a derived meaning of flâneur—that of “a person who walks the city in order to experience it”.

I have a Facebook page which I never use.  I deported myself from Linked In because I described myself as CEO of Charon Inc, money launderer and short seller of bank shares,  and some did not appear to understand that I do not actually exist.  They kept on sending me messages to get Linked In.   Charon QC is a figment of my imagination – as my ‘About’ section makes clear.   I lost the will to live after trying Google + for half an hour… I kept going round in ‘circles’.  I also appear to have broken Google ‘Terms of Service’ by using a fake name… “Charon QC’.  When I last looked, Google appears to think Charon QC is real and does exist.  Result!

Scots solicitor Brian Inkster has written extensively on the subject of law blogging and his thoughts (and the many comments) are worth reading: I Blawg. You Flawg. Period?

And so to…. this story from RollonFriday.com: Clients bare their bums in support of campaigning solicitor

“The clients of a legal aid lawyer have recreated a John Lennon and Yoko Ono magazine cover to support her fight to keep her practice.

Yvonne Hossack has dedicated her legal career to helping vulnerable people and, in particular, is known for her work on behalf of care home residents facing eviction. She’s acted for over 2,000 clients, saved care homes from closure and taken cases to Strasbourg. But it’s not been an easy ride: her firm has lost over £100,000 in the last year and she’s been fighting a battle against the Legal Services Commission which refused Hossack’s application for a legal aid contract (citing incorrectly filled out forms).

Therefore former clients Roger Kinsey, 66, and his wife Chris, 58 – whose disabled daughter was represented by Hossack – have decided to draw some attention to her plight by recreating Lennon and Ono’s 1968 Rolling Stone cover.”

Read more…

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

The Without Prejudice podcast this coming Thursday will be on Human Rights.  We hope that Hugh Tomlinson QC, a leading light on privacy and other legal matters, and Adam Wagner of 1 Crown Office Row and The UK Human Rights blog – will be able to join us – work permitting.

I am delighted that our audience is growing for these podcasts – and I very much appreciate that experienced lawyers are prepared to give of their time – free – to come down to The Staterooms at Battersea to record the podcasts.   I am also delighted to report that The Lawyer has become a sponsor and will be covering the fortnightly podcasts on The Lawyer website going forward helping us to reach a wider audience of lawyers – who don’t read blogs or tweet.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE LEGAL OMBUDSMAN

I enjoyed Neil Rose’s article in The Guardian: So far so good: the Legal Ombudsman celebrates a smooth first year

“It’s not often that public sector projects come in under budget and go live with no discernible hiccups, but the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) seems to have done just that.

A year old on Thursday, the organisation – an independent body dealing with complaints against lawyers – has had a remarkably smooth first 12 months, at least to judge by the positive reaction of the legal profession, which had feared being at the wrong end of some rough justice (although LeO has had to take three solicitors to court to force them to comply with various directions)…..”

Kenneth Clarke prepares for ‘enforced retirement’ following cat spat with May

The Guardian reports: Justice secretary unlikely to survive next reshuffle as No 10 backs home secretary in fall out over Human Rights Act

I am not a Tory – but Ken Clarke is one of few Tory MPs I like and understand.  He entered parliament when PM Camcorderdirect was three.  I do hope that he survives.  He was right on #Catflapgate and Theresa May was wrong.  I commented on this earlier in the day in the post below…

Orf now to write some more Chapters of my novel, ‘noir’.  Back with a Postcard From The Staterooms on te morrow.. or Sunday.  Enjoy the weekend.. and don’t let the Tory Beserkers get to you…

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Rive Gauche: The Bar bites back – UK Blawg roundup – Wife of MP convicted of nicking a kitten

Bar Council Chair Warns Conservative Conference of Consequences of Legal Aid Cuts
Peter Lodder QC, Chairman of the Bar, will say at a Conservative conference fringe event next week:

“I repeat here what I have said to your Coalition partners in Birmingham, and in many statements to the press, the public and parliamentarians from across the political spectrum. The Government’s cuts to legal aid, coming on top of successive rounds of cuts under the last Administration, will seriously undermine the efficiency of the justice system.   Barristers operate on the front-line to ensure that our justice system works efficiently, effectively and, most importantly, fairly for all involved….”

The cuts to legal aid and, in particular, the Clause 12 issue on legal advice being available in police stations will have a significant effect on the rights and liberties of those who need effective high quality legal representation in civil and criminal matters.

Here is a selection of podcasts and blog posts on the issue:

Without Prejudice discussion with Francis FitzGibbon QC |  Charon podcast with John Cooper QC on Clause 12 LASPO  |  Charon podcast with Nic Higgins, Chair of The Young Barrister’s Committee on a range of issues including difficulties faced by young barristers

And a few blog posts:  Nick Armstrong, Matrix Chambers – The LASPO car crash |CrimSolicitor: If you would like legal advice please press #1 now…(and make sure you have your credit card details to hand) |  James Vine Guest post on Clause 12

And just before I go orf-piste… a new initiative to give all students a chance of getting work experience with law firms and a fair start?

LC.N Says – Claire Butler – Time working-class kids were PRIME candidates?
Well… that is the serious stuff.. but it is the weekend.. and we are in the middle of a heatwave… so time  for some Rive Gauche…

UK Blawg Roundup #8 – Change!

An excellent round up of UK law blogs by Vic Moffat.  It is good to see that UK law blogging is not only growing in range and scope – but is healthy. It was kind of Vic Moffat to mention my blog.  I now feel like Methuseleh… and having a methuseleh.

And now… a bit of irony as reported by Rollonfriday.com…

“Law Society fined for disability discrimination ” “The Law Society has been found guilty of discrimination after making a disabled member of staff redundant. And in a devilish twist of irony, the person doing the firing was the Law Soc’s “diversity champion”.

Elizabeth Marshall – who suffers from cerebral palsy – had worked as a speechwriter at 113 Chancery Lane for eleven years before being summoned to a meeting with Stephen Ward, the Law Soc’s grandly-titled Director of Communications, Inclusion and Corporate Responsibility. During the meeting, it transpired her position was to be made redundant on grounds of business need. So that’s the Head of Inclusion getting rid of the sole full-time Law Society employee with a disability. Nice….”

Read more…

Alex Aldridge has a most interesting piece in The Guardian about Acculaw – a new initiative to cut the costs to law firms of training.  I’m still doing my thinking on this venture – but it is a good read from Alex.

“Today law firms seem to have figured out a way to spend less money on their young recruits. Last week a company called Acculaw – founded by a former lawyer and backed by several senior figures within the profession – launched a new cut-price lawyers’ training model. The firm will employ graduates on considerably less favourable terms than most current law recruits enjoy, then loan them out to law firms, where they will complete their training contracts.

Because Acculaw does not provide legal services itself, and has no reputation to protect, it does not have to worry about the PR implications of paying its trainees roughly half the salary of their peers at top firms. Nor does it lose any kudos by making no contribution at all towards its recruits’ law school fees. And, unlike law firms, Acculaw is under no pressure to provide a secure path into a permanent position once recruits have completed their training contracts

In one of the more bizarre law stories this week.. the wife of John Hemming MP is caught bang to rights on CCTC nicking a kitten from Mr Hemming’s mistress. 

The BBC reports: “Christine Hemming, wife of Yardley MP John Hemming, was filmed by CCTV cameras stealing a kitten from the Birmingham home of her husband’s mistress Emily Cox. Hemming denied burglary and said she was dropping off post and did not know there was a cat there. She said she tried to return the kitten when she realised she had it. The 53-year-old, from Moseley, Birmingham, was convicted at the city’s crown court.”

The film is remarkable….

AND FINALLY… who was it who said…

‘One thing that has become apparent to me in my years of Parliamentary service is that David Cameron is a complete c**t’.

The answer is here…

Enjoy the heatwave.. back at the weekend with a ‘Postcard From The Staterooms‘.

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Rive Gauche: Piss Up in a Brewery *Special*

Friday and the weekend provides me with an opportunity to look at some of the more surreal or even bizarre events in the legal world as well as covering a few law blogs. It seems appropriate to start with the theme of “Piss ups in breweries”.

As ever, RollonFriday.com does the business with: Exclusive: Irwin Mitchell offers training contract by mistake

There are red faces all round at Irwin Mitchell, after at least one applicant for a training contract was offered a job by mistake  – and then had the offer retracted. The student was phoned up and told that he’d been lucky enough to secure a training contract. And he then got another call the next day (presumably while he was shaking off the celebratory hangover) from an embarrassed HR manager, who said that it was all down to an “admin error” and the offer would need to be retracted. Nice….

I marvel that a well known law firm can make elementary errors of this nature and recommend my own online text on the Law of Contract and a series of free lectures.  The topic of Offer and Acceptance may be a good place to start?  If, of course, the offer had not been accepted – then communication of withdrawal of offer rules would apply.   Or… by some arcane regulation are training contracts and law firms exempt from the the Law of Contract?  I’d be delighted to know what rules and regulations govern this situation if the common Law of Contract does not? I’m a bit hazy these days on the regulations governing training contracts.  Perhaps a reader could enlighten me?  [Law student readers starting university this year – or studying Contract – may find my free materials on Contract of some use?]

Rather more serious than a piss up in a brewery is Clause 12

Anger at Coalition’s plan to limit right to legal aid

The Independent: “The Government plans to remove the “fundamental right” to free legal advice for people held in police custody – 27 years after it was introduced to stop miscarriages of justice.

Coalition MPs have voted through one of the most controversial sections of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill which would restrict access to legal advice for criminal suspects. Clause 12 paves the way for secondary legislation to introduce means testing for legal advice for those held in a police station. It would also see the director of legal aid, a post which does not yet exist, decide which detainees deserve legal aid in the “interest of justice” without any right to appeal.

It is part of sweeping changes which aim to cut the legal aid bill by a fifth. Legal campaigners argue clause 12 encroaches on civil liberties and will tarnish the reputation of Britain’s justice system. The right to free legal advice was enshrined in the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act after a swathe of miscarriages of justice involving the fabrication of confessions and intimidation of suspects by police in the 70s and early 80s….

This is a very serious matter.  Many are surprised that Lib-Dem MPs nodded it through.  The right to legally aided advice at a police station on arrest was brought in to curb Police abuses of due process and ensure that persons arrested were given clear advice on their rights. The Criminal Bar Association plans to go above the heads of government, according to a tweet by John Cooper QC earlier today,  and publicise this shocking piece of law reform.  I plan to do a podcast with John Cooper QC on the topic early next week.  I rather suspect that many Police officers are not that enthusiastic about the prospect that some of their ‘customers’ won’t be legally represented at the police station and, no doubt, criminal defence lawyers will focus closely on any abuse of process at trial?

This excellent piece by CrimSolicitor is worth reading… September 15, 2011 New Just one reason why telephone advice is not good enough…

But.. let’s get back to “Piss Up in a Brewery” territory. 

Hacking: Met use Official Secrets Act to demand Guardian reveals sources

The Guardian: Unprecedented move sees Scotland Yard use the Official Secrets Act to demand the paper hands over information

This excellent piece by David Allen Green, writing on his Jack of Kent blog, is marvellous stuff… Today’s Met Statement “This is the Met statement just released regarding the production order they are seeking against the Guardian. The last two paragraphs are the stuff of parody…”

Again… RollonFriday.com provides a bit of light relief… in this case from a US lawyer relieving his customers by over charging to the tune of $100,000… Greenberg Traurig partner gets six years hard labour for overbilling

After all this nonsense… a bit of sensible review from the law blogs and recent developments.

Obiter J, as ever, provides good analysis with his latest post: Legal Roundup – mid September

The Ministry of Justice reports: Kenneth Clarke: UK should be lawyer and adviser to the world

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has reaffirmed his commitment to promoting the UK’s legal services to a worldwide audience, during a speech to legal and business leaders in London.

‘Law as an industry has sometimes felt itself to be overlooked in its treatment by government – certainly relative to financial services. So I want to make it clear that for this Government, the City of London is a legal centre – not just a financial one.

‘The rule of law is one of our greatest exports but there is more that we can do to help UK legal services thrive.

‘I am prepared to wear out much shoe leather promoting the UK as lawyer and adviser to the world, particularly in areas where protectionist regulations remain an impediment.’

All very laudable – and great for the legal elite in the City – but it is somewhat ironic that we are exporting our “Rule of Law’ ideals to a grateful world while our own legal system is being run into the ground by a Tory led Coalition hell bent on cutting costs and cutting access to justice by degrading the ideals of Legal Aid.

Mind you… there aren’t many cuts to be had in the prison service.  Quite the opposite in fact, now that politicians have taken up the sport of interfering with an independent judiciary in the wake of the recent riots.  The Guardian reports: English city riots involved ‘hardcore’ of repeat offenders, first analysis shows

There is, however, some good news.  The UK Human Rights blog reports: Lord Justice Jackson: legal aid should remain for clinical negligence

Joshua Rozenberg, in The Guardian, notes: Ken Clarke is right – the European court of human rights needs reform

AND FINALLY… a bit of dark humour… from John Bolch over at Family Lore.  Venal & Grabbit, Solicitors launch new client satisfaction survey…

1. Did we deal with your matter promptly?

Yes, very promptly

2. Were our charges reasonable?

Yes – you should charge more

AND… good to see former practising solicitor John Bolch adding to his repertoire on his excellent Famly Law blog by doing commentaries on the profession in a new series “In Practice” –  In Practice: Latest developments in the profession

Have a good weekend.. back with a Postcard from The Staterooms tomorrow or Sunday.

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Rive Gauche: A Tale of Tarts and Vickers (HT @oflynnexpress )

An old cocaine/hooker story about Chancellor Osbore has resurfaced today from Guido Fawkes about Mr Osbore’s alleged antics in an earlier life.  There is now an added #Hackgate and #Coulsontmakeit up spin. The Aussies have got in on the act with an interesting interview with the woman at the epicentre of the story – See @tom_watson  tweet  below.

Even Tom Watson MP.. he of #Hackgate (the only member of the DCMS Select Committee able to ask a decent forensic question) has got in on the act….with this tweet, earlier:

@tom_watson

“Editor helped chancellor manipulate news.” bit.ly/r6n5UN (definitely worth a read).

Meanwhile…in the wake of the Vickers Report this morning on Bankers et al and their ‘Regulation’:  I have to award my *Tweet du Jour* to…

We do live in astonishing times.  We shall see soon enough if there are any leather thigh boot clad legs in this story.  Personally, I could not give a damn what Mr Osbore did or did not get up to when younger. I suspect that many of us did some pretty daft and unusual things in our youth.  It is rather more important what he gets up to today – managing the country’s economy et al – free from ‘undue influences’.

UPDATE

Guido Fawkes has pointed out that Osborne denied these allegations some time back – here is an old Guido blog post

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Rive Gauche: Dumbed down legal Britain is but months away….?

The final bank holiday of the year until Christmas is upon us.  Next week I shall return to detailed commentary on the law, but for now a few items from ‘left field’.

First up… the news that Rocket Lawyer is coming to town to take advantage of the brave new world of law under the Legal Services Act.

To infinity and beyond: Google Law prepares for blast off

Louise Restell writes: “Several years ago, when I was campaigning to bring about the Legal Services Act, some bright spark at Which? suggested to me it wasn’t Tesco law that would bring about a revolution in legal services, but Google Law.  I wouldn’t say I dismissed his prediction out of hand, but at the time it was quite a big leap to see how you could buy legal services in Tesco, never mind from Google.  Well, last week this colleague’s prediction turned out to be right as the Google-backed Rocket Lawyer announced its intention to launch in the UK in 2012.  It’s a measure of how far we’ve come that the news caused merely a ripple, rather than the tsunami we would have surely had in the past.”

And if that doesn’t worry you, what about this?: A US law circus is coming to town…

Exclusive: “Biggest legal brand in US” eyes UK market entry in 2012

Legal Futures reveals: “Pioneering US legal services business LegalZoom is planning to launch in the UK next year, Legal Futures can reveal.

Co-founder Eddie Hartman, who is also president of attorney services, told Legal Futures that the company is “deep into the planning stages” of its UK entry, with the hope of bringing them to fruition in the next six to 12 months.

However, he emphasised that LegalZoom was taking its time to understand the UK’s legal culture. “We have to pay close attention to what the UK customer wants – we are still working out what that is,” he said.

I have no idea how these two initiatives will impact on the legal services market yet.  I am, however, doing a podcast with Professor Gary Slapper on Monday.  Gary Slapper has written a detailed text on the English Legal System, so we should be able to ‘shed some light’ on this in the podcast.   We should be thankful that Mr Hartman of Legal Zoom is going to be doing some ‘deep planning and thinking’ – a fairly useful thing to do when launching a new product?

Meanwhile Mr John Hemming MP is facing calls to resign over his antics using parliamentary privilege to break super-injunctions This article from the influential Inforrm blog makes it very clear that Mr Hemming’s conduct was unacceptable.

“This case seems a particularly clear example of the dangers of a politician – who knows only part of a story – second guessing a judge who has heard all the evidence.   An injunction which was designed to protect the interest of a child was repeatedly breached by the losing party in litigation, encouraged and assisted by a number of websites and by Mr Hemming’s abuse of parliamentary privilege.”

Adam Wagner and the UK Human Rights blog has this news: President of Family Division’s press release on paedophile allegations case

With thanks to the Judicial Press Office, below is the full press release from the President of the Family Division in a case involving a “super injunction”, John Hemming MP, false allegations of pedophilia and some poor press reporting.

I will blog about this once the full rulings are released, but in the meantime see Lucy Reed: Bared Teeth – Grrrrr! | Pink Tape; Inforrm; News: Hemming MP’s “super injunction victim” named as sex abuse fabricator « Inforrm’s Blog, and the Fighting Monsters blog: Hemming and Haigh – The Journey of an Injunction.

David Allen Green continues to investigate #hackgate: The Story of Hackgate, Part 1 – A blog post well worth your time.

And then, of course, we have our political masters not learning the lessons of history from King Canute.  King Canute, you will recall, to prove to his “followers” that he was not omnipotent,  demonstrated that he could not hold back the waves.  Following the riots, Prime Minister Camcorderdirect, currently enjoying his fifth holiday of the year in Cornwall, and Home Secretary Theresa May, appear to be under the delusion that they can hold back the waves of social media.

Facebook and Twitter to oppose calls for social media blocks during riots

The Guardian reports: “Facebook and Twitter are preparing to face down government ministers over calls to ban people from social networks or shut their websites down in times of civil unrest The major social networks are expected to offer no concessions when they meet the home secretary, Theresa May, at a Home Office summit on Thursday lunchtime….”

As I write, I do not know the outcome of the meeting with May. But I can tell you that the BBC is reporting that Deputy Prime Minister Clegg was pelted with blue paint.  I’m not a fan of pie throwing or paint chucking as a means of protest.  Mr Clegg had the right attitude in shrugging it off… “These things happen. It’s not a big deal.”

The GCSE results were out today and trending on twitter… A’s, B’s C’s.  The incorrect use of the apostrophe is endemic in this country – prompting me to observe (lightly)  this morning..

Update: Mary Wombat (@little_mavis)

I thought the same about the apostrophe & was discussing this with someone on Twitter today. Then I found this http://oxforddictionaries.com/page/punctuationapostrophe Right at the bottom. Apparently for single letters & numbers it is acceptable to use an apostrophe to indicate a plural

I was taught at school by a stickler for the apostrophe.  It would appear that I have erred!  I have always used the convention of simply adding an ‘s’ to indicate the plural. One learns every day!

A fascinating issue on university fees has escalated into law…

Does Scotland’s university fees system breach human rights laws?

The Guardian: If claims of discrimination against non-Scottish UK students are proved, Westminster may be forced to interfere in domestic matters devolved to Scotland

I am not a fan of the increase in fees to £9000 next year.  Iwasn’t a fan of the Labour government’s plan to charge fees at all.  My generation were fortunate.  We did not pay fees.  The government says we have run out of money.  Universities must stand on their on feet.  The future of our country in terms of workforce and wealth creators must now pay for their own education – borrowing the money but paying it back over a lifetime. I don’t know the answer to this problem, but I suspect, if we pulled back from entering unwise wars which we can’t actually win, we may have more money to invest in the future of our country and the high quality of education which we do provide at university level.  This, of course, may be far too naive and simplistic a view and is unlikely to find favour with our political masters.  I would like to see this case won.  I don’t see why an English or Welsh student who wishes to attend a university in Scotland should pay a higher fee than a Scots student or other student domiciled in Scotland pays – another view unlikely to find favour with  political masters. – in this case Scotland’s.

I’ll leave you to enjoy your bank holiday weekend with this from Professor Gary Slapper…

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Rive Gauche: Cameron appoints judge to head inquiry with ‘links’ to Murdochs? How bizarre is that?

Two stories have caught my eye overnight…both from The Telegraph…

George Osborne had dinner with Rupert Murdoch two weeks before BSkyB bid decision

The Telegraph: The Chancellor, George Osborne, flew to New York and had dinner with Rupert Murdoch two weeks before the media regulator was due to decide on whether to approve his takeover of BSkyB.

AND… this.. rather more important one…

Phone hacking inquiry judge attended parties at home of Rupert Murdoch’s son-in-law

The Telegraph: The judge in charge of the phone hacking inquiry has attended parties at the home of Rupert Murdoch’s son-in-law.

Lord Leveson’s office insisted that David Cameron had been informed of the judge’s attendance at the parties and had not raised any objections.

Lord Leveson’s office continued: “Lord Justice Leveson was not involved in that meeting and he has neither met nor spoken to anyone from Freud Communications since January 2011.

“There is, in any event, no continuing relationship. Prior to his appointment to the inquiry, Lord Justice Leveson ensured that these matters were brought to the attention of the Prime Minister.”

Twenty years ago I was involved in a contract dispute.  I won.  The first High Court judge to try the issue had to recuse himself (stand down).  The plaintiffs objected on the grounds that I had had a drink with the judge when he was a QC.  The judge had no problem with this.  Nor did I.

In the present climate – I am surprised that the Prime Minister, aware of the minor connection between Lord Justice Leveson and the Murdochs as reported in The Telegraph – thought it fitting that Leveson LJ should head the inquiry.  I am sure that Leveson LJ would be impartial.  He is highly regarded.  But on this very complex and emotive issue of #Hackgate – it is surprising (a) that this story was not announced at the time Leveson LJ was appointed and, frankly, (b) that Leveson LJ was appointed, and (c) accepted the appointment.

My view on this may not find favour in some circles…. but I do feel, strongly, that Leveson LJ – assuming The Telegraph story is accurate in all respects – should stand down.  There must be other judges with no connections to the Murdochs or their empire, who could do just as good a job?

Chris Bryant MP has objected. I think we should also object...strongly.

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Rive Gauche: Charon QC on Tea Making (4th cumulative supplement) now out…. Seminal!

Charon QC on Tea Making,  4th Supplement to the 29th Edition (Maninahat Press) £780 + VAT

“This inter-disciplinary and seminally important update to the 29th edition of this internationally acclaimed  tractatus from leading and  very contemporary law diva, Charon QC, explores the commoditisation of law students from the academic stage of legal education all the way through to the industrial tribunal when they are finally fired by their law firm as 50 year old partners. Given recent Government reviews and consultations, resulting in access to justice being withdrawn from all save for wealthy injunctioneers and footballers unable to engage their brains before exercising their membrum virilis, commoditisation of law students  is very much an issue exercising the public agenda and ‘direction of travel’ at present. Charon QC deftly  argues that most discourse in legal education, and indeed the profession, is driven by sociological perspectives  involving large amounts of  money.  His aim is to interrogate the supply and demand of paid work for law students through a wider range of disciplines including tea making, flipping burgers, flogging off Olympic memorabiliatat and sandwich boarding. This is laudable, as complex social issues like failed expectation demands a truly interdisciplinary analysis and given the broad range of opportunities now available to law students within law firms, other than actual employment as a lawyer,  Charon QC, remarkably, despite his fondness for the nectar of the gods, has succeeded in producing a largely coherent, integrated and well organised volume that should be of interest to a diverse readership.  We, at Muttley Dastardly LLP, are certainly interested in providing opportunities for highly qualified law students who understand the intricacies of the Japanese tea making ceremony or chadō (茶道) as The Partners at Muttley Dastardly call it.”

I commend this volume to the world urbi et orbi – a bodice ripper of a book from The Diva!

Dr Erasmus Strangelove MA  (Oxon), MBA, Ph.d, FRSA, Barrister, Director of Psyops, Education and Strategy, Muttley Dastardly LLP

Strength & Profits.

***

I am grateful to RollonFriday.com for their excellent article on….

Firm seeks law graduate to serve tea

A City law firm has announced a “great temporary opportunity'” for fresh-faced law graduates to, errr, work as catering staff.

The taxing role demands such skills as serving sandwiches to clients, helping out on reception and setting up afternoon tea. And even the ability to book a taxi. Who wouldn’t be interested? The unnamed firm is looking for someone to make an immediate start and interested candidates are asked get in touch with consultants Career Legal. Who wisely failed to reply to emails or pick up the phone when RollOnFriday got in touch with them….

Read more….

I shall return with Part II of Rive Gauche once I have seen my dentist.  I am taking along a copy of The Law of Medical Negligence in England and Germany by Stauch, to leave in my lap as he operates on me…. laters…

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Rive Gauche: Felicity Gerry takes Rozenberg to task – The Twlawyer floats *Flawgit PLC* et al….

It has been quite a week, so I thought a casual romp through some of the legal stories of the week, without too much analysis, would be a fine way to spend a rainy Friday night at my desk…

Barrister, Felicity Gerry took Joshua Rozenberg to task for his comment on the Facebook Contempt trial.

The night before the sentence, the issue of the right to trial by jury was hotly debated on twitter after Joshua Rosenberg’s article in The Guardian asked the question “Whom would you prefer to be judged by – a highly trained, publicly accountable circuit judge? Or 12 people like Joanne Fraill?” It was a dangerous and unsubtle attack on the jury system which will fuel those in civil service policy units with their eyes on their pay cheque rather than justice.

I have to say that I was a bit baffled by Rozenberg’s comment and analysis in The Guardian.  While the celebrated graffiti comment on the (urban mythical?) custody suite wall “I am about to be tried by 12 people too stupid to avoid jury service” is amusing;  most of the criminal practitioners I have spoken to are supporters of the jury system, as I am, despite its occasional flaws.  I rather like the idea also that a jury has the right to declare a verdict which lawyers and judges may deem perverse.   I commented briefly on the Facebook trial yesterday and provided a link to an interesting speech on the Jury by Lord Judge   yesterday.  Also – rather insulting to the many jurors who take their responsibilities seriously?

RollonFriday continues to find the good stuff and bring it to the table: Exclusive – West End firm offers law school grads just £6.10 per hour

There was more evidence of the woes in the legal graduate recruitment market this week, with news that a London law firm is offering a job to law school graduates at just £6.10 an hour.

Kyriakides & Braier has exacting standards, mind you. Applicants for the “legal administrative position” should have at least a 2:1 in their degree and a minimum of a commendation in their LPC. Even Slaughter and May doesn’t insist on that when taking on trainees at £38,000 a year. The rewards for such endeavour are just two pence an hour above than the new minimum wage that will come into force later this year, and £2.20 an hour below what the Mayor of London describes as the London Living Wage. The firm would have to pay an extra £3.40 an hour for someone to clean its offices. Bah, humbug.

The UKSC blog, an excellent analysis resource for all matters relating to the United Kingdom Supreme Court – a blog unlikely to be read by Scotland’s First Minister? –  has a fascinating post on Lady Hale’s views on the ECHR: Lady Hale: Beanstalk or living instrument, how tall can the ECHR grow?

Last night Lady Hale gave the 2011 Barnard’s Inn Reading, entitled ‘Beanstalk or living instrument,  how tall can the ECHR grow?’During the lecture she explored the theme of legal evolution and the manner in which Convention rights have been reinterpreted in order to reflect changing social mores. In particular she examined four areas in which the changing interpretation of Convention rights is more problematic:

‘(a) the interpretation of the ‘autonomous concepts’ in the Convention; (b) the implication of further rights into those expressed; (c) the development of positive obligations; and (d) the narrowing of the margin of appreciation permitted to member states’……

Neil Rose of Legal Futures, always on the money when it comes to looking at legal practice, writes: Sell, sell, sell – what In-Deed tells us about law firm flotation

I don’t know much about the financial markets – that’s one of the many reasons I became a solicitor donkey’s years ago. So I don’t quite get how a company like online conveyancing business In-Deed, which with the best will in the world is currently little more than an idea, can float on AIM, have a market capitalisation of £8.6m and within a couple of days see its share price rise a third, from 42p to 56p. The service only actually launched last month.

To my uneducated eye, it looks like a considerable gamble to invest in an untested business model, however pukka the people behind it may be.

Well worth a read…..

Meanwhile John Hyde, writing in the Law Society Gazette writes:  DLA Piper boss’s warning for legal sector

The head of global legal giant DLA Piper warned this week that a ‘paradigm shift’ is about to hit the sector.

Sir Nigel Knowles (pictured), joint chief executive of the firm, predicted many firms will flounder in the next 10 years after alternative business structures (ABSs) arrive in October.

‘They (ABSs) are going to kill off the commodity firms at the bottom of the food chain. I don’t think they have any inkling of what is going to happen to them – competition will intensify and it will have a knock-on effect,’ he declared….

Read…

Well… I did say that it would be a romp..and romping they were at Royal Ascot yesterday…  The Sun… nails it

It’s all kicked toff at Ascot

Three years ago… how time flies…. I wrote about Royal Ascot…. in my slightly surreal West London Man series….  Not much has changed.

West London Man is returning very soon… if you fancy a look at the first 25 episodes of a modern day Rake’s Progress through the English social season… here it is.. with some bizarre podcasts and sound effects…

Back tomorrow…

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Rive Gauche: “We, at Muttley Dastardly LLP, marvel at the antics of our fellow lawyers in the City. Long may it continue… mwahahahaha.”

Fridays, for me, are a strange mix of weekday and weekend.  I often find that I don’t get many responses to emails and when I call to speak to a client I am often told they are ‘working from home’.  As I don’t wish to be a ‘stalker’, I tend to leave the matter there and not ask if the client is contactable at home.  Sometimes, however, I am given a contact number.  Today, I had the pleasure of ringing the ‘working from home number’ to be told by the client’s young son…”Dad will be back later.. he’s playing tennis.”  15-Love it !

So… a bit of law from the left field….

I did enjoy this story from The Lawyer (HT to @davidallengreen who expressed displeasure at his old firm doing this in a tweet last night)

Herbies defends decision to sell work placement at auction

“Herbert Smith has confirmed that it sold a work placement for £1,150 in a charity auction, despite following a policy of social mobility and equal opportunities for candidates of all backgrounds. Insolvency and restructuring partner Stephen Gale, who is a member of the Pilotlight charity, which aims to alleviate disadvantage, organised the week-long work placement to be offered for auction by the charity last November. The firm’s head of resourcing Peter Chater said Gale had organised the work placement as a one-off informal arrangement for charity.”

Read….

Not really a major step forward in diversity?  Dr Erasmus Strangelove, Director of Psyops, Strategy and Education at niche boutique City law firm Muttley Dastardly LLP said today – from his yacht in Monte Carlo:  “We, at Muttley Dastardly LLP, marvel at the antics of our fellow lawyers in the City. Long may it continue… mwahahahaha.”

And then this wonderful piece from Pupillage Blog… remarkable.  Truly remarkable…. 

Pupillage Interviews Going South!

I urge you to read it. 

AND.. the legal profession just continues to give….. 

RollonFriday.com continues to keep a close eye on the aberrant behaviour of lawyers…. with this: BLP email: a translation

Ah, I remember the LPC and the power my future employers had over me. Nothing was more scary than an email appearing in your inbox from them. Was I sacked? Had they made a mistake? Was my employment part of an elaborate practical joke that someone was just too embarrassed to admit?
Which means I did laugh heartily at the BLP article today. I can guarantee this is how they read it…

Injunctaway

There is, of course, according to RollonFriday – no connection with the round of redundancy consultations at The College of Law and the £1 million in bonuses being paid to The College of Law board.

A spokeswoman for the College denied that bonuses of £1m had been paid, but wouldn’t give any other figure. She said that the timing of the redundancy announcement “was purely coincidental” and added that “there is no connection between this staffing review… and executive remuneration levels”.

I am a fan of televised court proceedings.  I have enjoyed looking at some of the coverage from The United Kingdom Supreme Court.  I’m not so sure that televising rather ponderous Chancery proceedings or even ‘more interesting’ criminal proceedings will make good television.  It isn’t like Crown Court, Kavanagh QC or Silk – where all the action is over within an hour.  Certainly, I can the see the argument for televising judgments.

Cameras in court: trial by boredom?

David Banks takes up the story in The Guardian:  “TV should be allowed to show trials. But broadcasters, and viewers, will only be interested in the high-profile cases”

Joshua Rozenberg is on the money with a recent article in The Guardian..

Lords to debate whether parliament should scrutinise judicial appointments

It is an interesting and thoughtful piece.  I’m not so sure it is a good idea for Parliament to scrutinise judicial appointments.  We could end up with elected judges – or, possibly, judges becoming ‘politicised’.  I shall do more thinking on this issue before commenting.  It is Friday, after all.

And finally… this from US lawyer and artist Charles Fincher….. I do enjoy his cartoons, observations and art…

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Rive Gauche: Judge uses ‘My wife punched herself in the face” defence… and other nonsense from lawmakers and lawyers

Sophocles had a point… yet this week we have a number of examples of judicial and political misbehaviour.  The Sun reported “A JUDGE’S career was in tatters tonight – after being found guilty of battering his wife because she was late with his tea. Deputy High court judge, James Allen QC AND his wife a deputy county coroner were also shamed after both were accused of LYING under oath in court to try to get him off.”

District Judge Daphne Wickham decided neither had told the truth and she found Allen guilty of assault.  She was, clearly, not convinced about Mr Allen QC’s defence that his wife had punched herself several times in the face.  James Allen QC will be sentenced at a later date.

Chambers described Mr Allen thus:  James Allen QC is ‘a formidable negotiator of huge intellect’.  On the assumption, not unreasonably given my researches on the Bar Council website for James Allen QC, that this refers to the above, it is a pity he didn’t use his considerable powers of negotiation and huge intellect to make his own ‘tea’?

AND then… there is a lawmaker… Lord Hanningfield… a lawmaker who wasn’t really sure about the laws relating to expenses.  The Independent reports: Expenses peer Lord Hanningfield is found guilty – on day disgraced MP is freed early

A former Tory frontbencher faces jail after being found guilty yesterday on six counts of fiddling his parliamentary expenses. Lord Hanningfield, who had been a Conservative transport spokesman as well as leader of Essex County Council, was convicted for false claims for overnight stays, mileage and train fares.

He had denied dishonestly claiming expenses totalling almost £14,000, but was found guilty by a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court. The vast bulk of the fraudulent claims – £13,379 – were for £174-a-day overnight allowances for London when he was often returning in a chauffeur-driven car provided by the council to his home in Essex.

On one occasion the peer, who was a pig farmer before he embarked on a political career, was actually on a flight to India. He also wrongfully claimed £382 in train fares, as well as £147 in mileage by doubling the seven-mile distance from his house to the station.

Lord Hanningfield, who will be sentenced in three weeks’ time, said as he left court: “I am devastated, but I have no regrets. I did nothing wrong.”

A quick trip to RollonFriday.com reveals some more unusual ‘goings on’…

Exclusive: Slaughter and May in offensive job ad shocker

There were red faces at recruitment firm First Counsel, chosen by Slaughter and May to advertise its vacancies, after it posted a pompous and apparently xenophobic job advertisement.

The advert was aimed at associates to join Slaughters’ competition team, and claimed that “perhaps counter-intuitively, the firm is not as exacting in terms of its requirements as one might expect and will happily consider lawyers from Australia, New Zealand and Brussels”. The generosity! To consider convicts, sheep stealers and mussel munchers!

Graham White, Slaughters’ Executive Partner, told RollOnFriday that the firm was entirely unaware of the advert, did not approve its wording, considered it to be clearly offensive and had demanded it be taken down.

Here’s the ad in all its glory…

And the legal profession…just keeps giving! : “Exclusive: saucy Senior Partner scandal hits top City firm” – “RollOnFriday can reveal that a Senior Partner of a top City firm has been rumbled by his own staff after engaging in an extra-marital romp with another partner at a firm event. The antics – allegedly spotted by numerous fellow lawyers and even bragged about by the Senior Partner himself – took place at a UK resort. RollOnFriday’s sources at the firm said that, following a dinner, the philandering partner “hook[ed] up with a younger, buxom [partner]” , and “went to her room on the first night” before spending more time together the next day…..

Read….

But if you have time and the inclination for something sensible  and for  a spirited discussion on privacy, superinjunctions, the antics of another lawmaker – Mr John Hemming MP – and want to find out what GCs do… then may I recommend the #WithoutPrejudice 6 podcast which I thoroughly enjoyed doing with our guest, Tim Bratton, GC of The Financial Times and regulars David Allen Green  and Carl Gardner.  Hit the link above or scroll down.

I’ll leave it there for the moment…. I may have some more nonsense for you in my ‘Postcard from The Staterooms’ later today… or tomorrow…

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Rive Gauche: We need an Aristofart to lead us? – Rafofskylypse – a truly astonishing saga of a US lawyer suing 74 US lawyer bloggers

After a surreal week of dentals, serious meds and a birthday – and reeling from the Court of Twitter on Ken Clarke – I read with mounting astonishment some world class nonsense in The Telegraph which restored a degree of sanity to my fevered brow…

David Cameron’s uncle says voters want to be led by an aristocrat

The Telegraph: “David Cameron’s uncle Sir William Dugdale says the working classes prefer to be led by an aristocrat and the Prime Minister should not be ashamed of his background. While David Cameron has often gone to embarrassing lengths to show that he is prolier-than-thou, his uncle Sir William Dugdale has no such inhibitions…….”

Sir William Dugdale is reported as saying…

“You can’t just turn up to things in an open-necked shirt,” he says. “So many of the clubs in Oxford required you to wear white tie. You have to have a bath before you go to things and not just turn up in your bovver boots.”

If you thought that *British* lawyers could get up to weird things… this astonishing saga of a US lawyer suing some 74 leading US lawyer law bloggers (and one Canadian blogger) is incredible…

Here… Antonin Pribetic of The Trial Warrior blog,  takes up the latest episode of the saga…

This… is WORTH… a read… I shall return… later……

This comment is well worth extracting to the main  body of the post…

Colin Samuels

A minor clarification of a couple of points regarding the “Rakofskylypse”:

While the initial complaint named 74 defendants, these are not all legal bloggers. The “Rakofsky 74″ included two newspapers, together with their parent companies and three reporters, the American Bar Association and its website, and (I believe) at least a couple of folks who were commenters on others’ posts.

The original Rakofsky 74 are now joined, in a no-less-frivolous amended complaint, by another half-dozen-plus defendants, making for a grand total somewhere north of 80 (I’m too lazy to count it up right now).

In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that I am one of these latter defendants. My employer is as well, though it’s plain to anyone visiting my site that they have no connection with my personal blogging (in 6+ years, I’ve only generally alluded to my position and have never mentioned my company by name). Rakofsky and his lawyer have drafted quite the scattershot complaint.

It’s great to see some interest from our legal brethren across the pond. I hope you’ll all stay tuned to enjoy the show as we return fire against this crapweasel in the very near future.

AND finally… all I have to say on the tweets on Twitter tonight about someone suing Twitter for something…

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Rive Gauche: Chef Charon at The Staterooms… eating Boeuf Buggerorf a la Charon

Bonsoir … Bienvenue aux  The Staterooms .. Je suis  Chef Charon …. avec des étoiles (dix-huit) à mon nom … histoire vraie …

Tonight, after eating boeuf bourguignon to death about a year ago ( I do eat things to death and cannot face them for months after), I shall be dining in splendid isolation, wearing a Panama hat,  at my dining room table eating Boeuf Buggerorf a la Charon.   

For those of  you who would like to eat Boeuf Buggerorf a la Charon – here is a recipe wot I knocked up….

Chef Charon présente Boeuf Bourguignon

I always enjoy writing the Rive Gauche posts on Fridays / Saturdays… tales of the law from the left field.   Today I have a few oddities and a few interesting sane posts to share with you…

First up – a  remarkable story of a US attorney, an associate, who appears to be suing most of the US law  blogosphere who took him to task for his antics.  I know many of the people in the claim through blogging – they are leading US law bloggers – and I have had the pleasure of podcasting with several of them.  It really is an astonishing story.

How Young Lawyers Should NOT Conduct Themselves Online

Do…please.. take time to read this.  It will bring a smile to your face… of this, I am sure.

Courtesy of Mark Bennett, you can read the complaint for yourself of what is already being referred to as Rakofsky v. The Internet.

RollonFriday.com continues to provide amusing examples of law firm behaviour… this is wonderful nonsense…

Exclusive: Top Scots firm launches “league table” of associates’ hours

Morton Fraser is taking the ground breaking step of abolishing annual fee targets. And getting associates to compete with their colleagues instead…

The Scots firm has come up with a new initiative called “peer benchmarking“. The idea is that a league table is created for each level of fee earner, and the aim of the game is to get to the top of it. Rather like the Scottish Premier football league, with possibly more talent but the same number of pitch-side scuffles…….

Read more…

On a rather more sensible note… Wikileaks – The Musical is playing to thousands and may run and run…

David Allen Green, writing in the New Statesman has an excellent SCOOP!

The £12m question: how WikiLeaks gags its own staff

The follow up to this in The Guardian is also worth reading.. from the guy who would not be gagged:  WikiLeaks, get out of the gagging game

I refused to sign Julian Assange’s confidentiality agreement because it would have been not just ironic, but dangerous

James Ball

And not to be outdone.. Alex Novarese, editor of Legal Week, appears to be revising the libel laws of England & Wales single handed with two excellent articles – neither of which are behind a paywall: Libel reform – a hack’s proposal.  I loved the title of the post with the picture of Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, beside it.  Class!

And also this detailed piece: The death of libel – is the Defamation Bill the beginning of the end for libel lawyers?

Always a pleasure to see new law blogs arriving: Carrefax | a few more legal transmissions to add to the pile and this new Family Law blog – Confessions of a Family Lawyer

AND.. I do like this: Clerkingwell – Observations from a barristers’ clerk. 

While I read the Supreme Court judgment, I got kidnapped by a bottle of Rioja and was forced to watch The Apprentice earlier in the week.  Thankfully Obiter J has done the business with a very good analysis on…

Supreme Court – Compensation for miscarriage of justice cases

I did enjoy this piece on the Magic Circle from Ashley Connick: The Magic Circle Myth? How some applicants miscategorise firms they’re applying to

AND.. this prompted me to cruise ( I don’t surf.. I cruise…) over to Anonymous Assistant: Feudal Bonds

and thence to Magic Circle Minx: What Can Lord Sugar’s Tomato Task Teach Lawyers?

The new Babybarista book is out!.

Tim Kevan is a good friend of mine.  I enjoy reading his regular posts in The Guardian, repeated on his blog.  I enjoyed the first book…and I am thoroughly enjoying the second.   I shall write a review shortly… but I can tell you, three quarters of the way through,  that Babybarista is deliciously venal.  Dr Erasmus Strangelove, director of Psyops, Strategy and Education at Muttley Dastardly LLP is keeping a very close watch….. in fact… it would not surprise me if he is hacking into Babybarista’s mobile as I write.

Available, as they say… at all good bookshops.. but why not buy it from a really good bookshop? Wildy’s – they deliver and are very efficient!  I know this from many personal experiences.

And, of course, no week would be complete without a bit of Max Mosley.  Carl Gardner, author of The Head of Legal blog, has covered the case in detail.  Mosley v UK : “Max Mosley has lost his case in the European Court of Human Rights, in which he claimed that the UK breached his right to respect for private life under article 8 of the ECHR by failing to impose a legal duty on the media to notify him in advance of a story that violated his privacy….”

I did enjoy the bit on BBC  Question Time last night when Max Mosley had finished speaking and Dimbleby said, without a flicker of a smile… “And now we go over to the man in the black shirt”.  Irony is not dead.

Non-lawyers may be baffled to discover that it is a requirement of The Bar that all barristers have to eat 12 dinners before they are allowed to practise law.  Some lawyers find it equally baffling.  (Picture source)

Alex Aldridge has the story behind this in The Guardian:  Barristers’ dinners – a bit of fun or one upper-class indulgence too many?

BUT This.. from Carrefax.. corrects a few (mis)conceptions… all good stuff…

Dinner at the Inns and rebellious bladders

“There are enough misery merchants pedalling doom and gloom about the Bar. Those thinking about entering the profession deserve an accurate and fair picture of it. That includes coverage of the Inns of Court. On this occasion, Alex’s article doesn’t meet that standard.”

Good article…. well worth a read.  Essential if you are think about a career at the Bar
Well.. there we are.. time waits for no man..and certainly not an Eighteen star chef… I have my Boeuf Buggerorf a la Charon  to perfect and  ‘plate’ and then…  I shall dine wearing a Panama hat…. watching the sun set over Chelsea… and there may be a few ducks I can wave at.  I shall be drinking burgundy.

Have a good weekend…

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Rive Gauche: The Era of the high-rolling criminal barrister is over!

Friday has arrived rather more quickly than I anticipated, but that being so… it must be time for a view from ‘Rive Gauche’.

It has been an interesting week.  The Daily Mail was able to publish a judge friendly story with this nonsense…

Judge’s anger after three scaffolders make £70,000 injury claim for van crash – at 1 MPH

Needless to say, the judge was not impressed. The Daily Mail reports: “Now a judge has thrown out the action after hearing from two expert witnesses.   One, an independent engineer, said that the damage sustained by the lorry would have cost no more than £300 to repair.”

The era of the high-rolling criminal barrister is over

Alex Aldridge writes in The Guardian: “A handful of criminal barristers still make big money, but the rest may have to diversify if they want to eat”

As it happens, I am doing a podcast with Nichola Higgins, Chair of The Young Barristers, on Wednesday about the new CPS plans and the pleasures and difficulties of a career for young barristers at the Criminal Bar.  I am looking forward to it.

I hadn’t started on my London Marathon final preparations, by opening a bottle to breathe, when I read this wonderful stuff from solicitor and fellow blogger David Allen Green in the New Statesman…

Should Oxbridge be abolished for undergraduates?

The Friday Question: why not turn Oxford and Cambridge into postgraduate universities?

I shall have to ask David for the telephone number of his vintner when we next meet to do a Without Prejudice podcast.

And just when one thought that social meedja could not get any more bizarre…. this…

Lawyers Who Ignore Social Media Equal to Cavemen Who Refuse to Hunt, Techshow Duo Says

“Social media is to marketing what email is to business communication.” This bold analogy on the importance of building an online network of relationships underscored the discussion of co-presenters Robert Ambrogi and Reid Trautz at ABA Techshow on Monday on ways to use social media to boost your overall reputation and marketing scheme.

With the proliferation of websites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Avvo, Facebook or any of the hundreds of other online communities, today’s lawyers can no longer rely on static websites to generate business and enhance reputations. The duo’s No. 1 bit of advice? Start a legal blog…

I think it is a great idea to start a blog.  It isn’t easy to keep a blog going, as some have found..  The danger, of course, arises when the blog becomes a vehicle for law firm or personal practice puffery and little else.  The Twlawyer knows all about Linked-In, Tweeting all night using a buffer app and knows how to do the biz and really make a pig’s ear of it.

A rather more sophisticated (and interesting) analysis of the value of social meedja et al to lawyers came from the blogger Legal Brat, GC to the FT.

Cowsourcing: let’s share nicely children

Thousands may sue over police kettling at G20 protests

The Guardian: “High court rules way in which police kettled up to 5,000 demonstrators at G20 protests in April 2009 was illegal.  Thousands of people found by the high court to have been illegally detained for hours by police at a central London protest may sue Scotland Yard for false imprisonment. The high court has ruled that the Metropolitan police had broken the law in the way it kettled up to 5,000 demonstrators at the G20 protests in April 2009.”

While the decision is specific to the G20, I suspect the met Police may well find difficulties arise in future over the use of this tactic?

Ever reliable for bizarre news of goings on in the legal profession, RollonFriday. com has this today…

Law firm wants to hire magician

A firm in south west London is looking to recruit a property lawyer who can perform magic tricks whilst pitching to clients.
RollOnFriday was alerted to the unorthodox position when a job ad by a recruitment consultant was posted on the web this week. Jonathan Fagan, the recruiter, said that a mindreading criminal solicitor from Kings Lynn had already expressed an interest. Apparently he earns more from his act than his day job.

As Royal Wedding fever approaches shark feeding frenzy time in the tabloids, it is good to see a law firm taking advantage of the Nation’s interest in holy and other matrimony with this…from The Law Society Gazette

Law firm develops divorce app

A North London family solicitor has launched an app designed to help divorcing or separating couples in England and Wales to save money on their legal fees. Peter Martin, head of family law at Finchley firm OGR Stock Denton, has devised the ‘Divorce?’ app to provide people with easy-to-understand, practical information about the divorce process. It covers topics including legal costs, the practical implications of separation, individual rights and entitlements, long-term financial impact and expectations, and issues around handling any children involved…

Obiter in The Law Society Gazette can’t resist the Royal Wedding fever either, it would seem…

Taking the biscuit

As the Royal nuptials hove into view, lawyers at London’s Lloyd Platt have come up with some helpful suggestions for any solicitors out there who may or may not be drawing up a pre-nuptial agreement for the happy couple.

Well.. there we are…

I am enjoying Tim Kevan’s new Babybarista book “Law & Peace” ( I have an advance copy!)  – published in early May.  I shall write a review shortly…. in the meantime, I did enjoy this from Babybarista..

The modernisers are revolting

And finally… I really did enjoy watching this short film.. 

“Someone Czech his pockets! Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus is embroiled in an embarrassing blunder as he his caught on camera pocketing a pen on a state visit to Chile.”

Watch?

Hat Tip @loveandgarbage for alerting me to it.

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Rive Gauche: All Fools Day edition….

On All Fools Day, two April Fools caught my eye… both involving lawyers. The BBC did a very cleverly constructed piece involving Julian Assange’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, and David Allen Green, on his Jack of Kent blog, wound up some skeptics.  I particularly enjoyed the comment ‘attributed’ to the  Mumsnet founder on the BBC piece: “Fathers have always been welcome on Mumsnet, I even keep one in my own house. I find it very useful for the spiders.”

David Allen Green wrote:

Why “skepticism” is now just another cult

Anyone adopting an “evidence-based” approach must reluctantly concede that the so-called “skeptic” movement has now just become another cult.

This is unfortunate.

However, the evidence is overwhelming…

(The comments are amusing – do have a look)

I will add a third amusing April Fool... from the files of RollonFriday.com – an email from James Holder, Managing Partner, Charles Russell

Departing from April Fools… but, arguably in a similar vein, we have to consider the new Bribery Act which, I suspect, will cause some alarm in the business world and keep lawyers busy for some time.

Revamped Bribery Act is giving firms the jitters

Alex Bailin of Matrix Chambers in The Guardian: “Businesses are gearing up for compliance as facilitation payments and hospitality are set to come under closer scrutiny. After widespread criticism of the lack of clarity in the original draft guidance to the Bribery Act 2010, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has rewritten it and the act will come into force on 1 July.”

I enjoyed this… “The justice secretary, Ken Clarke, has now made it clear that “no one is going to try to stop businesses getting to know their clients by taking them to events like Wimbledon, Twickenham or the grand prix”.

Well… that must come as a relief.  It will be interesting to see in the new ‘business driven economy’, where our High Commissions and Embassies around the world are being turned into temples of mammon, how our businesses will cope in countries where bribes are a matter of business routine and are not seen as ‘criminal’.

Troops on standby after Kenneth Clarke privatises Birmingham prison

The Guardian: “The justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, said soldiers had been put on standby and told MPs: “If people are so unwise as to take industrial action in prisons, the situation can rapidly become far worse than in a normal strike because we start getting disorder among the prisoners.”

Not being involved in criminal law as a practitioner or academic, I can only express a lay opinion.  My first reaction is that to involve British troops in prisons, should there be industrial action, is to risk the high regard most have for our forces.  I may well be wrong.  While we already have private prisons, is privatisation of the prison system a good thing?  My gut reaction leads me to the the view that the state should be responsible for prisons.  I was told on twitter last night,  by a practising barrister who sits as a Recorder, that the private sector have been effective and are more focused to rehabilitation because of the way the contract rewards are drawn.  If that is proven, and we can reduce recidivism, then that can only be a good thing.   I would be more than happy for my initial ‘gut’ feelings to be replaced by opinion based on good evidence.  We shall see.

The Orwell Prize: While I was invited to enter my blog by a good friend and fellow blogger and lawyer – it is not my ‘thing’… so I didn’t. I prefer to faff along in my own way, randomly at times,  and see what happens.  I am, however, delighted to see that my friend and fellow blogger, Carl Gardner of The Head of Legal blog, is on the long list.  Adam Wagner of the UK Human Rights blog has also made the long list. Both, deservedly.

Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.
George Orwell

I did enjoy this from RollonFriday.com: Birmingham Law Soc President awards Firm of the Year – to his own firm

At a glittering awards ceremony last Thursday, the Birmingham Law Society handed out gongs to the cream of the Midlands legal community. Including a Firm of the Year award for the President’s firm. In the fractured West Midlands market, there are multiple awards for Law Firm of the Year. Top billing – for firms with 16 or more partners – went to Higgs & Sons, in a contest described as “fierce“.  However Dean Parnell, the President of the Birmingham Law Society – and a partner in the dispute resolution team at Sydney Mitchell Solicitors – presented the “Law Firm of the Year (five to fifteen partners)” award to, errrrrr, Sydney Mitchell Solicitors….

Read

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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 resume next week.

Justice Minister Lord McNally is in Albania to formally launch an EU-funded twinning project between the countries’ probation services.

During the visit Lord McNally will emphasise the UK’s support for Albania’s ambitions to join the EU, but will stress that a strong, independent judicial system and respect for the rule of law are needed before this can happen.

I suspect that Lord McNally did not refer to the fact that to have a strong legal system a country needs to have a fairly strong base of legal aid – No fee, No win, can only do so much.  I suspect that Lord McNally did not refer to the fact that prisoner votes;  a matter of our government complying with a judgment of the ECtHR, made our prime minister ‘sick to his stomach’, and I suspect that Lord McNally did not refer to the difficulties his fellow minister, Mr Djanogly, is having – gleefully reported in Obiter in the Law Society Gazette.  (A rather amusing story) But…at least this ‘expedition’ was EU funded…..which will please the euro sceptics.  Perhaps a viewing of the latest drama from the BBC, Silk, would be in order… just to get things in apple pie order in legal terms?  (pic above left from Silk)

The Wikipedia entry provides an insight into Lord McNally’s background. As far as I can see from that – and I accept that Wikipedia is not an ‘authoritative source’ – Lord McNally does not appear to have much by way of political experience in the law, but that, in these ‘dark days’,  may NOT be a disadvantage when it comes to government policy –  as The Sun keeps on telling its readers when Ken Clarke comes out with a sensible proposal on reform which does not involve hanging, flogging, detention for life…etc etc.”.

Supreme Court New Appointments: Sumption and Wilson

Twitter was ablaze (at least in my time line) this evening with tweets about Jonathan Sumption QC leap frogging judges to ‘make legal history’ by being appointed direct to the Supreme Court from the Bar.  I can’t see that this is a bad thing – but on the matter of history –  the excellent UK Supreme Court blog points out that John Reid KC, a Scot, was appointed as a Lord of Appeal in 1948, having been the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates and the Solicitor General for Scotland.  ( Sir Edward Carson KC and Cyril Radcliffe KC were appointed to the House of Lords direct from the Bar.)  Still no confirmation of the story as I write – but Joshua Rozenberg who did the first tweet this afternoon usually get its right.)

I did a brief post earlier about the BSB and the SRA wanting to bring in aptitude tests to ensure that students who are taken on by law schools at the LPC and BPTC stage are actually ‘apt’. I’m not going to rush into a response.  I want to think about this initiative.  The comments on the The Law Society Gazette article are most interesting and well worth a read.

The Law Society Gazette reported in February… “Lady Deech, chair of the Bar Standards Board, said the BSB would press ahead with its plans to introduce aptitude and English language tests for students before they can undertake the BPTC.

Deech said: ‘There are too many people on the course who shouldn’t be there. We need to give a signal to those who aren’t up to it that they’re wasting their money.’

Deech said language is a tool of the trade at the bar, and it is wrong to ‘let people loose on the public’ if they do not have sufficient English language skills.

She said: ‘If you’re tone deaf, don’t go to music school; if y­ou have two left feet don’t go to ballet school.’

I am doing a podcast with Baroness Deech in early April…. so there is a fair amount to discuss.

And… I did enjoy this from Charles Fincher Esq – a US lawyer and artist….

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Rive Gauche: Govt interference with legal profession and other matters…..

James Dean reports in the Law Society Gazette

Baroness Hayter said that the Legal Services Board, LSCP and Legal Ombudsman (LeO) have been told by the Ministry of Justice to take their websites offline and replace them with government-approved sites by 31 March.

Hayter said that the three bodies had been informed by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude of the move in October last year, sparking criticism from those involved. She said that LeO chair Elizabeth France complained to Maude, saying that ‘there was no justification for an ombudsman, set up to demonstrate independence from government regulation and the profession and spending no government money’, being forced to use the government’s .gov web address.

I was under the impression, wholly unjustified it would seem now, that the Tory-led farrago running our country was not in favour of top down control, was not in favour of the nanny state and wanted Big Society.  What possible justification can the government have, therefore, for encroaching on the independence of the Legal Ombudsman and other law quangos by requiring them to toe the line to the rather dull style and content of the government websites?  Why don’t these independent bodies demonstrate their independence by refusing to comply?  Or would that not be that handy when it comes to the annual dishing out the gongs ceremony?

Bad start for bill of rights

Afua Hirsch in The Guardian: If the Tories really want public engagement in the new review, why did they bury the last one?

Afua Hirsch’s article is interesting and worth a read. Another example of government lack of attention to detail?

The seven supposed members of this new commission, including Lib Dem peer Lord Anthony Lester, deny any knowledge of their appointment

The Prince’s Speech

Prince Andrew urged to undergo human rights awareness training

The Guardian: Foreign Office adviser says Duke of York’s close ties with autocracies ‘a classic case of unjoined-up government’

I would have thought that Prince Andrew could do with some Human awareness training.  I can’t remember which newspaper I saw it in… but there was a marvellous cartoon yesterday showing Prince Andrew at his computer looking at his Facebook page with the caption… “You have two new despots”

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Rive Gauche: “Sexual encounters have their ups and downs, their ebbs and flows” – Geoffrey Roberston QC at the Assange extradition.

Let’s kick off with Private Eye’s QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Sexual encounters have their ups and downs, their ebbs and flows.” – Geoffrey Robertson QC, speaking (for the defence) at Julian Assange’s extradition hearing

And then let’s really go dark…with Alex Aldridge’s piece in The Guardian:

Is there a cocaine culture at the criminal bar?

BBC drama Silk implies cocaine use is rife in the legal profession. But how accurate is that view?

I have, as it happens, watched both episodes of the BBC’s new drama about M’learned friends… Silk.  I have, to be honest, enjoyed the lawyers tweeting away on twitter (adversely, it has to be said) more than the drama itself.

Hat Tip to @BillfromBendigo

Cocaine rife? Bar humbug, say lawyers

Read

(The pic on the left is from my F**kART series of paintings and other oddities.)

I shall leave the reviews of Silk to others.  Pink Tape has rather a good piece…. SILK – Purse or Sow’s Ear?

All I will say on this matter is that I did attend a meeting at 11.00 am some years ago where a young partner in a London  law firm did appear to talk remarkably quickly and seemed to be pleasingly receptive to a proposal which I was putting to him. He only had one biscuit – and it was fascinating to watch him eat it…chomping quickly.

And now… to more serious matters… potentially very serious!

Warning for bloggers and tweeters as newspapers found guilty of contempt of court

Adam Wagner, writing in the UK Human Rights blog, makes a few rather important points…

Attorney General v Associated Newspapers Ltd & Anor [2011] EWHC 418 (Admin) – Read judgmentFor the first time  a court in England has convicted two newspapers, the Daily Mail and the Sun, of contempt of court in breach of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, for the publication of a photograph relating to an ongoing criminal trial  on their websites.

The judgment contains an important warning for bloggers, tweeters and journalists who use instant news to report on criminal trials: ”instant news requires instant and effective protection for the integrity of a criminal trial“.

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BPP Law School Fees announcement: From September 2011, BPP is giving its home students more flexibility around how they can pay for their studies. The following changes will be made to its law school programmes payment methods….

Read….

And it isn’t even Friday……

Who knows what tomorrow may bring..?  But I do rather fancy one of these golf carts…..

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Rive Gauche: Aujourd’hui, je suis français et je suis fumeur de Gauloises et de boire du vin rouge… bien sur…beaucoup!

Bonjour dans Les Staterooms … aujourd’hui, je suis français et je suis fumeur de Gauloises et de boire du vin rouge… bien sur…beaucoup!

I rather lost the will to live today after reading the judgment of The European Court of Justice on the insurance gender issue.  Fortunately, there is sensible coverage of this on The UK Human Rights Blog.

I am very happy to write without fee about almost anything .. but even I must draw a line in the sand somewhere….so I won’t be covering it..and will leave it to others (supra)…..(whether they describe the judgment as ‘bonkers’ or not)……save to shoehorn in a bit of whiplash claim and Injury claims for a friendly client who is sponsoring my free materials for students on Insite Law – which I do appreciate.

I spent part of my afternoon,  before self prescribing some quite enjoyable claret,  pondering on Monsieur Assange’s forthcoming trade mark application to protect the use of the word ‘Assange’.

And this led me…given how my mind works on occasion… to put this question on twitter….

Has anyone put in an application to trade mark the word *Fuckwit*? I’m not that busy at the moment.. time on my hands 🙂

@db1957 caused me to reflect with his response…which…I feel sure has much merit:

@Charonqc *Fuckwit* can you trademark a word when 650 prats at Westminster could claim prior use?

Anyway…. inspired by another tweet response.… before I make a complete assange of myself… on to other matters….

James Dean, writing in the Law Society Gazette, reports: Olympic pro bono service launches

Solicitors and barristers are being asked to provide free legal advice to participants in The London 2012 Olympic Games, as a new pro bono service was unveiled today.

The Law Society, the Bar Council and the British Association for Sport and Law have launched The London 2012 Pro Bono Legal Advice and Representation Service, which will provide advice to accredited athletes, coaches, team officials, National Olympic Committees, National Paralympic Committees and International Federations participating in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

So… when some hapless runner completes the 100 metres final in 4 seconds, fuelled on ecstasy or some other banned substance, it will be good to know that  Gold winning lawyers in England & Wales  will be available to assist by way of representation…… and don’t forget the *injury claims*….

AND…for there must be an end.. this excellent piece highlighting a conversation which Assange had with the Editor of Private Eye… – a very interesting read.

Assange goes off deep end – blaming Jews and Guardian in Private Eye

au revoir

Le Charon (Patent pending)

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Rive Gauche: Dressing for SUCCESS in The Law…and #lawblog

As I rose this morning, recovering further from a nasty foot injury and the meds, news reached me from RollonFriday.com that College of Law staff in Chester are going on a makeover and learn how to ‘dress for success’.

RollonFriday with their customary (and pleasing) acerbic style note… “Staff at the College of Law’s outpost in Chester are to be beautified (“taken on a journey of discovery”) by House of Colour, which will be providing them with image consultations and make up lessons. The staff are to be given the Gok Wan treatment, which is all very charitable of the legal world’s favourite charity. Well, when you’ve paid £10,000 for your LPC, the very least you can expect is a fragrant tutor, right?….”

It occurred to me that I could usefully use up some of my time by going into the legal fashion business and my sketches above give an indication of my preliminary thinking on the matter.  I note the increasing tendency for men to turn up in suits without ties and, even, mon dieu, to team up a pair of faded jeans with a pinstripe suit jacket.  The legal profession is, on past form, unlikely to give up their stiff and formal fancy dress or pinstripes – so my thinking is…why fight it?  Let us, as a profession, celebrate diversity and colour…. which are ‘very of the moment’ in Bar Council and Law Society think tank rooms…

For corporate commercial lawyers, hinting at expertise in drafting, I have gone for the black coat and stockings look with a gold buckle on the shoes to hint subtly at considerable wealth.  You will note that our 21st century facing commercial lawyer eschews the iPad accessory for a hand made quill pen and parchment for added exclusivity and disbursements. Litigators tend to be the jack the lads of the legal world.  A red coat, tricorn hat – hinting at the triad of litigation: plaintiff, defendant and judge (noting the use of ‘plaintiff’) will give the modern litigator an edge and strike fear into the hearts of those new No Fee, No Win companies.  For partners, a  look being studied at Muttley Dastardly LLP by Dr Erasmus Strangelove, an understated elegant bit of haute couture.

For counsel…. I have really pushed the boat out with this very of the moment, very 21st Century Lady Gaga look… accessorized with a horsehair wig. I think it may catch on.

#LAWBLOG

I was not able to be on the panel at #lawblog last night and had to pull out, sadly, because of a nasty foot injury and the associated medications. I was disappointed.  It would have been a pleasure to meet all who attended.  I did enjoy the #lawblog tweets and, I understand, Adam Wagner of 1 Crown Office Row is planning to write it up and post a podcast recording.  It is good to see that blogging is alive and well.

See Adam’s post:

That was the future of legal blogging

Adam Wagner has followed up his earlier post with this….

A sense of doom is gripping the legal profession in the face of significant cuts to the justice system. Amongst other consequences, legal aid may soon be reformed almost out of existence, meaning that lawyers will face the double jeopardy of fewer clients and more nightmarish cases against litigants in person.

I was musing last night that I am not really a law blogger.  I blog about law, politics and anything that comes into my head, sober and over refreshed. I have no idea why I do… save that I do it for pleasure and hope that readers enjoy a mix.  I have decided that I may be (at times)  more of a hooligan law blogger.… I like to run onto the pitch and chuck the odd metaphorical bog roll at the profession or the crowd.  I may even take up streaking……

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Rive Gauche: The well bred City lawyer brings up white wine after the fish course

I shall start my Friday Rive Gauche post with a sensible comment and let it go downhill from there….

While it may make David Cameron ‘sick to the stomach’ and irritate many in this country who feel that those who have committed criminal offences (some extremely serious and denying the human right to life, freedom from assault and rape to the victims) should be denied the right to vote –  do we, as a country wish to inflict an eye for an eye, behaving in like manner as those who commit serious crimes,  and continue to refuse to comply with the judgment of the ECHR, a court which applies The European Convention, which not only did we sign up to, but which we were instrumental in drafting after World War II?

Thomas Hammarberg, Europe’s commissioner for human rights, points out in The Guardian today:

Prisoner voting: Convicts are human beings, with human rights

Most other member states of the Council of Europe already allow prisoners to vote – and this has caused no real problems

I believe that we should comply with the judgment for three reasons: Firstly, we are a civilised nation.  Secondly, we signed up to The European Convention and thirdly, if we are to build our country going forward and deal with other nations not by waging war, but by working with them, a strong record on human rights and fairness can only help that ideal.

Well…. if we are going to go downhill…we may as well do it in style.  RollonFriday.com reports today in their News section…always worth a read on a Friday…

Debevoise London office in vomiting party shame

RollonFriday reports: A leaving party for a Debevoise & Plimpton lawyer has not gone well, with one member of staff chucking up and rumours of another being knocked unconscious.

The party was held at the Pacific Oriental bar on Threadneedle Street. An insider said that the attendees were completely smashed, and behaved sufficiently badly for the bar staff to ask them repeatedly to calm down. And one member of the Debevoise team was so wrecked that he threw up on the entrance steps.

I am grateful to my old friends Mick & Nick Nosh of The Nosh Brothers (anarchic celeb chefs, hooligans and gourmandisers – I was even a shareholder in the now defunct Nosh Brothers restaurant, late of Notting Hill. Those were the days!)  for the inspiration for the caption below……  I have ‘nicked’ their wonderful introduction to a chapter in one of their books.)

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