tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70650012012-02-08T14:32:41.255ZI am a legal academic commenting on the strange worlds of law, legal profession, bureaucracy, universities, and globalization. You can find my publications and download them at <a href="http://www.johnflood.com">www.johnflood.com</a>John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.comBlogger4721100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-39073983480958573722012-02-08T14:32:00.000Z2012-02-08T14:32:41.283Z

We think of the Maldives as an idyllic place for scuba diving and stress-free holidays. But it isn't. Yesterday, the army and police joined forces to mount a coup against the democratic government. President Nasheed is missing and other government officials will meet the same fate. The Maldivian Democratic Party has put out an urgent appeal: We strongly condemned the violent attack by the

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-67028212805365108992012-02-07T00:30:00.000Z2012-02-07T00:30:00.078Z

There is a symposium on this topic at Legal Ethics Forum. It runs between February 6 to 8 with a wide range of participants including: Rakesh Anand (Syracuse); Anita Bernstein (Brooklyn); Hannah Brenner (Michigan State); Ray Campbell (Peking STL); Paul Campos (Colorado); Michael P. Downey (Washington U./St. Louis U.); Paul Horwitz (Alabama); David Hricik (Mercer); Lucy Jewel (John Marshall

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-67793659786455162952012-02-06T00:31:00.000Z2012-02-06T00:31:26.611Z

(thank you to visitmyhub.com) I want to take several disconnected events to show that the legal services world is really undergoing volcanic eruptions. The first is the merger between King & Wood and Mallesons. That a Chinese law firm would merge with an Australian one was not visible on most people's radar, but it makes perfect sense. The firm will be the largest in Asia with over 2,100

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-82071766323342206532012-01-22T16:06:00.000Z2012-01-26T00:12:07.055Z

Sukhdev Sandhu is a writer for the Telegraph newspaper in the UK. In 2006, with the sponsorship of Artangel, he produced Night Haunts: A Nocturnal Journal through 2006. It is a wonderfully evocative melange of visuals, sound, and words exploring those who inhabit the nights of London. There are African night cleaners, exorcists, minicab drivers, helicopter police, urban foxes (of which there

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1London, UK51.508129 -0.12800551.350007 -0.443862 51.666250999999995 0.187852tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-88165318511918748312012-01-17T17:07:00.000Z2012-01-17T17:07:18.736Z

 (thanks to zdnet.com) One of my favourite questions for someone is "Do you open Finder/Explorer in icon or list view?" It tells you something about how you approach life, rationally, intuitively, or that you don't know how to change the way it opens. Law Without Walls is primarily icon although you better have your list ready. LWOW exercises both hemispheres of the brain and for those in

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-41300748664683166952012-01-11T09:00:00.000Z2012-01-11T09:00:06.434Z

(Thanks, with twist, New Yorker)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.508129 -0.12800551.350007 -0.443862 51.666250999999995 0.187852tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-39523895400446463832012-01-09T09:00:00.000Z2012-01-09T09:29:19.622Z

(Singapore old and new) I've been researching the global context of legal education recently and the competition is becoming intense. The usual suspects are UK and US law schools, which compete for overseas students especially at the graduate level. Carole Silver has studied this area extensively. However, I suspect we shall see the competition take on a new dimension. One finding of my

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com3London, UK51.508129 -0.12800551.350007 -0.443862 51.666250999999995 0.187852tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-37536238759447388622012-01-06T12:55:00.000Z2012-01-06T12:55:35.462Z

(thanks) The Troika is upsetting big bar associations because it is demanding the liberalization of professions in countries it is bailing out. Key complainers are the American Bar Association and the CCBE. (Thanks to Peter Lederer for the H/T). The Wall Street Journal Law Blog reported that the ABA and CCBE have written a letter to Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-91185445234816147462012-01-03T17:16:00.001Z2012-01-03T17:16:09.199Z

(thanks to Rocking Horse Works) Today's the day the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) belatedly began accepting applications from those who want to become Alternative Business Structures. It was meant to be last October 6, but the SRA hadn't quite got to the cantering stage then. Now it's trotting along. According to Legal Week there have been 15 licence applications including Irwin

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-25470837394531081002011-12-30T17:00:00.001Z2011-12-30T17:00:51.957Z

Hot off the press, this one. Rick Kordowski, creator of Solicitors from Hell website, is appealing the judgment against him. So far the Law Society's actions have failed to close the website, which has resurfaced as Solicitorsfromhell.net (see below), and now Kordowski is back to challenge Mr Justice Tugendhat's decision. Kordowski said, "[he] was tempted to leave it alone and let it go

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-55070903042320893392011-12-25T10:12:00.000Z2011-12-25T14:57:43.865Z

During the year I've blogged on many frivolous things--ABS, Legal Services Act, legal education and more. But now it's time to reflect, collect one's thoughts, and get serious. This blog post is about my new coffee machine! Now you see what I mean about SERIOUS. The last few days have been blissful as I have begun to learn the wiles and idiosyncrasies of my La Scala Butterfly coffee machine and

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-85376626567367842822011-12-15T21:44:00.000Z2011-12-15T21:44:14.375Z

In June this year I asked "why does Solicitors from Hell" exist? That post received a comment today from pirate which said, "And back again solicitorsfromhell.net". I thought this would happen and that the Law Society's victory in the courts would be pyrrhic. There was a twitter exchange that suggested the legal profession shouldn't be executing Kordowski but dealing with the complaints. We

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-84245048721404806432011-12-13T22:45:00.000Z2011-12-13T22:45:34.446Z

My favorite is their 4'33'' version of Silent Night (thanks to New Yorker)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-57685972850925599992011-12-05T19:37:00.001Z2011-12-05T19:44:51.324Z

I'm feeling a bit dozy as I have just drafted a research grant application but there's a lot more to go yet... [If you look over to the right there are pictures of my former Pekingese. Pao, the black one, doubtless heard the crowds when chasing his squeaky ball. He made enough racket which sounded like "Plausa, plausa...."] (Thanks to New Yorker)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-68449805180865905012011-11-29T13:46:00.001Z2011-11-29T14:30:32.952Z

The effect of the Troika's actions on the regulation of Irish legal services has been severe and radical. The combined might of the IMF, the EU, and the European Central Bank is considerable. Ireland, however, is only one of its beneficiaries. Italy, Greece, and Portugal are also feeling the heat of change chasing them. As I said yesterday, there's nothing like a good crisis to compel change

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-31435112344002568262011-11-27T17:04:00.001Z2011-11-27T18:52:04.952Z

Ireland is about to head towards Tesco Law. Turns out that Tesco is in Ireland also, so that helps. Last Friday (25 November) I spoke at a conference at University College Dublin on Regulating the Legal Profession. Ireland has introduced its own Legal Services Regulation Bill (PDF of Bill here) which is based on a report by the Irish Competition Authority published in 2006. The first

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-87852288607394655472011-11-20T17:18:00.001Z2011-11-22T17:00:50.548Z

(thanks to New Yorker)  There is one thing wrong with the question in the title and that is whether in fact we should have or need to have law schools. The more I think about what the UK Legal Education and Training Review has to do, the more I feel for them. Probably since the days of 1870 at Harvard Law School has there been such an air of turmoil around legal education. It's clear we don't

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-148297004110735962011-10-29T17:33:00.000+01:002011-10-29T17:33:04.630+01:00

(H/T to @lawcampus)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-77761723271974571092011-10-26T21:17:00.000+01:002011-10-26T21:17:04.814+01:00

Peter Lederer and I have put our first joint paper on SSRN. The title is "Becoming a Global Lawyer" and it is based on interviews I have conducted with Peter. The paper's abstract says Using oral history we track the rise of legal globalization through the experience of an early partner in Baker & McKenzie, the world's largest and most global law firm. The paper considers two case studies

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-16223804228395556712011-10-25T20:56:00.000+01:002011-10-25T20:56:07.661+01:00

(Thanks to Martin Rowson) Jotwell has just published my review of Milton Regan's chapter on Taxes and Death: The Rise and Demise of an American Law Firm in Austin Sarat's edited collection, Law Firms, Legal Culture, and Legal Practice, 52  Stud. in Law, Politics, and Society 107 (special issue) (2010), available at SSRN. Here is part of the review: Jenkens & Gilchrist was a small but

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-9778160360983866312011-10-22T16:47:00.000+01:002011-10-22T16:47:55.648+01:00

I've been talking at a symposium on globalization and the legal profession at Fordham Law School in New York. We talked a lot about how lawyers and law firms depend on relationships in order to succeed. Are they good at forming and maintaining relationships? On the whole, yes, but it can be fickle. One presentation by Neta Ziv and Chris Whelan showed how clients are imposing all sorts of

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-89471463921259910042011-10-16T20:30:00.000+01:002011-10-16T20:30:06.133+01:00

It is a truth seldom told to students, but the legal profession is facing its most profound changes. As the recent UCL debate on legal education showed, legal academics are frightened by the future. So much so, they refuse to acknowledge it. Life will continue the same. It won't. Although October 6 was meant to be Legal Big Bang it turned out to be Unheard Whimper. This is frequently allied

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-55798819598389532292011-10-08T21:18:00.000+01:002011-10-08T21:18:51.307+01:00

A real fight has broken out between accountants and lawyers (reported in Accountancy Age) and it's going to be bloody. That's the sort of thing that happens on damp squib day (October 6, 2011) when alternative business structures don't quite happen. The chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales, Michael Izza, has written a strong letter to Des Hudson,

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-23651771759501780912011-10-06T16:02:00.000+01:002011-10-06T16:56:22.692+01:00

Damp squib day or bad firework day.... This was meant to be the Big Bang of legal services when the thrillingly named Alternative Business Structures took off into the stratosphere. Not even a fizzle. This is because the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Ministry of Justice can't get their act together. So while we shall have licensed conveyancer ABS, we won't have lawyer-type ones

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-3991719695502536952011-10-06T16:00:00.000+01:002011-10-06T18:33:40.190+01:00

Do read Julian Webb on hEaD Space The Glorious 6th?John Flood's Random Academic Thoughts (RATs): Damp Squib Day....

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-76080551176676850192011-10-03T20:49:00.002+01:002011-10-03T20:49:41.203+01:00

(thanks to New Yorker)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-33496137231509621792011-09-27T18:15:00.000+01:002011-09-27T18:15:05.266+01:00

DWF, a predominantly northern law firm, has started a new entry track for lawyers via apprenticeship. It is a paralegal academy for school leavers run in conjunction with the Institute for Legal Executives (ILEX). With the unbundling of legal services and the need for differentially qualified legal personnel, this move is symptomatic of the changes taking place in the profession and

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-84500461059129492382011-09-26T18:58:00.000+01:002011-09-26T18:58:02.566+01:00

(thanks to New Yorker) This is just how I feel sometimes.....

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-1599290081352989472011-09-20T16:48:00.000+01:002011-09-20T16:48:42.156+01:00

  Three items this week reinforce the idea that the legal world has changed and continues to change rapidly. They are all to do with education and training of professionals. KPMG, the accounting firm, has taken 90 school leavers and placed them in accounting courses at Durham and Exeter universities on courses it effectively owns. Over four years they will divide their time between

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-14888466075226415302011-09-13T22:48:00.000+01:002011-09-13T22:48:13.059+01:00

Ken Clarke, the British Justice secretary, is giving a speech that praises Tesco Law and external investment in law firms according to the Financial Times. Increased competition will improve services for consumers. Around 30% of the top 100 law firms in the UK are considering taking external investment or going for an IPO. Not everything is going to plan. Stephen Mayson pointed out that the

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-34739188182975314672011-09-05T16:41:00.000+01:002011-09-05T16:42:51.497+01:00

Bonuses are all the rage now. Rupert Murdoch was given $12.5 million in his $33 million pay package from News Corp. this year which is up 47% on last year. And his son James was awarded $6 million. The difference is that James seems to realize that the Murdochs might not have actually deservedly earned these bonuses. He has declined his but Rupert is keeping his. With an extended family he

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-60475672646076239852011-08-30T17:22:00.001+01:002011-08-30T17:22:54.275+01:00

I am teaching a course at Miami that includes a number of readings on globalization, but I am always searching for better ways to reach students. I think I have found an unusual one with the film, How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman. In the 16th century the Portuguese and the French were fighting over control of Brazil. The indigenous tribes were caught in the middle of this struggle. Different

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-43907016040643206682011-08-30T01:03:00.001+01:002011-08-30T01:03:35.678+01:00

(Thanks to New Yorker) After an August full of rain, my back yard in London looks just like that. Only my elephant is smaller.

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-40208496743769811252011-08-23T13:28:00.000+01:002011-08-23T13:31:32.900+01:00

(thank you Colin)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-40805461625631161172011-08-19T22:22:00.000+01:002011-08-19T22:22:50.934+01:00

In my previous post, I vainly hoped lawyers could learn from the complaints process they now have to follow. Unfortunately (h/t to Legal Futures) they haven't quite absorbed the lessons. This is definitely a case of being placed on the naughty step. Two law firms refused to follow the Legal Ombudsman's orders to compensate clients. The result was the LeO went to court to get enforcement

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-17107699553076451142011-08-16T21:09:00.002+01:002011-08-16T21:10:02.007+01:00

While people argue over Rick Kordowski's Solicitors from Hell, the complaints bandwagon rolls on and on. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has issued new requirements to law firms on how they are to collect information on complaints. The SRA's starting point is clear A perception of poor complaints handling by the legal profession was one of the drivers for the Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-53356680327388217172011-08-12T21:33:00.001+01:002011-08-12T21:33:46.103+01:00

(thanks to thegioiseo.com) It's happened. Google has entered the law business! Google has invested in Rocket Lawyer according to Forbes magazine which says Rocket Lawyer has 70,000 users a day. Paul Lippe also covers this at the New Normal. I've been giving presentations for the past couple of years where I have always finished with a picture of Google's logo and said, "There's the world's

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-15325760336038922942011-08-08T22:23:00.000+01:002011-08-08T22:23:08.417+01:00

I have put a new paper on SSRN on legal education--"Legal Education in the Global Context: Challenges from Globalization, Technology and Changes in Government Regulation". The abstract reads Legal education is going through profound changes around the world because of globalization, technology, and government changes in the organization of legal services. English lawyers have

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-36824705959905646552011-08-04T19:53:00.000+01:002011-08-04T19:53:27.249+01:00

(thank you) Two separate items in Legal Futures raise concerns about lawyers and their relationships within their own firms and with their clients. They tell different sides of the same story, from inside and outside the law firm. The first is that many firms haven't begun to train their staff in risk and compliance for when outcomes focussed regulation begins October. Yes, three months.

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-64040733070201691842011-08-03T13:53:00.001+01:002011-08-03T13:53:53.379+01:00

(thanks to thenonbillablehour)  Vivia Chen writes a simple yet telling piece on how not to blow the dream date when outside counsel are asked to meet in house counsel to win a mandate and client. Based on the thoughts of Nino Cusimano, GC for Telecom Italia, it seems all so straightforward why anyone would mess it up, but they do. He says that he's often shocked at how lawyers flub the

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-23960841917719761952011-08-02T20:15:00.002+01:002011-08-02T20:15:38.700+01:00

(thanks to movieaddicts) There's a scene in Gomorrah (about the Neopolitan Comorra) where dress-makers compete to win an haute couture contract for a major clothing designer. They are asked to bid for the work in money and time--the lowest amount for each. Pasquale pleads with his boss not to go below a certain number of days which of course he does to win the contract. It's a reverse

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-88531454969172810322011-07-29T13:53:00.000+01:002011-07-29T13:53:16.685+01:00

October will pass without Alternative Business Structures and it looks likely it will be the end of the year before we see them, unless you are a licensed conveyancer that is. In part this is due to the way parliamentary business is done and also to the manner in which appeals against Solicitors Regulation Authority decisions will be conducted. There is also the vexed question of what criminal

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-88558855698395836422011-07-22T11:44:00.004+01:002011-07-22T11:49:05.768+01:00

(thanks to Byfield) As I came out of the BBC yesterday with Des Hudson*, the chief executive of the Law Society, he said Rick Kordowski was a criminal. I reminded Des that the police didn't think so. He wasn't happy. We'd both been invited to discuss Solicitors from Hell on Radio 4's You and Yours consumer affairs programme. For those of you who might not know Solicitors from Hell allows

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-80057963755713486042011-07-01T18:37:00.000+01:002011-07-01T18:37:42.609+01:00

(thanks to isu.edu) Legal Futures guides us to an enlightening survey on law firms' ideas on the brave new world of ABS and Tesco Law. It appears interest is waning. Baker Tilly, the accounting firm, has been surveying lawyers for two years now on their reactions and expected responses to the wild horizons before them. The latest survey for 2011 shows that law firms are orienting themselves

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-73058072441712380902011-06-29T20:18:00.000+01:002011-06-29T20:18:22.841+01:00

(thanks to John Bolch of Family Lore) There are 45 comments on the state of Rick Kordowski and his website Solicitors from Hell on a page detailing a judge's latest suggestion about what should happen to Kordowski. It seems the judge suggested that the Law Society and the Bar Council should consider taking action against the website. To that end they have consulted Hugh Tomlinson QC (Mr

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-18419762058145159172011-06-20T21:03:00.000+01:002011-06-20T21:03:46.802+01:00

(thanks to New Yorker)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-74203427504823630332011-06-18T15:31:00.002+01:002011-06-19T14:50:20.671+01:00

City law firms are ticked off because government legal procurement doesn't seem to be going their way. Legal Week reported on government's reliance on one or two firms for its banking crisis work, well, mostly one--Slaughter & May. During the Northern Rock crisis it billed government £20 million in fees. The latest beneficiary is Freshfields, which isn't on the panel, and partner Barry O'Brien

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-33641485547673060662011-06-03T14:15:00.000+01:002011-06-03T14:15:56.096+01:00

(Meatpacking district in NYC) According to the New York Times law firms are upping sticks and hiking across the invisible boundary line that divides civilization from the savages. They're moving from the East Side of NYC across Fifth Avenue to the West Side! It would be like London law firms moving from the City to Dalston, Hackney, where it's so hip it hurts:   (By the way, two guys tried to

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-50517147940659095852011-06-01T12:01:00.000+01:002011-06-01T12:01:53.648+01:00

(Thanks to Colin and Accountancy Age) The accountants are desperate to have some form of accountant-client privilege and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales have applied to be intervenors in the Prudential case before the Supreme Court. The Law Society has already been given permission to intervene. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-13719596027597024522011-05-29T14:30:00.001+01:002011-05-29T14:36:06.996+01:00

(thanks to toonpool.com) Following on from my previous post on general counsel and compliance officers, it's worth reading Michelle Garlick's post on what can happen to compliance officers when things go horribly wrong...as they will. In the case she describes a brokerage firm, ActivTrades plc, failed to put into place proper client money protection procedures. The Financial Services Authority (

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-33587727229135000522011-05-24T18:43:00.000+01:002011-05-24T18:43:10.450+01:00

Risk management in law firms will soon be a tortuous task. At the 2nd Annual Law Firm General Counsel & Risk Management Forum today a group of law firm general counsel discussed their roles and how they thought they might change when the Solicitors' Regulation Authority (SRA) new handbook rules come into play. The concerns arise because the SRA will require law firms to appoint COLPs (or

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-86107057820190028162011-05-21T16:44:00.001+01:002011-05-21T17:13:00.630+01:00

(thanks to greentech media) Is it worth floating a law firm on the stock market? Peel Hunt, a broking house, thinks it can work. In a briefing note, it lays out the attractions and possible drawbacks. Some of the key points are a continuing need for legal services with a growing regulatory state--ie. more red tape, more need for lawyers and other professionals. Good steady income streams (if

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-62030084330546139192011-05-18T08:00:00.001+01:002011-05-18T08:00:05.508+01:00

When the Australian Minister for Financial Services refers to accountants and tax professionals as "the consiglieri of suburban prosperity", you know a good argument is brewing. The argument is over who should be able to claim privilege over communications with clients and third parties. At the moment we recognize legal professional privilege. But for a long time accountants have bristled

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-11527756649080816822011-05-17T16:05:00.000+01:002011-05-17T16:05:08.269+01:00

Well, not a free one but an outfit called the National College of Legal Training (NCLT) is offering a £5000 discount on their Legal Practice Course and their Graduate Diploma in Law. Apparently, this is a competition run through Facebook. According the press release I received, the usual fee is £7,500 or thereabouts, so the money is good. If you enter you have to provide a bunch of information

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-39537286603470266182011-05-15T16:46:00.000+01:002011-05-15T16:46:16.645+01:00

"We'd like you to talk about culture," the caller said, "Over breakfast." Why not? I thought. I've almost got to the stage where I'll talk about anything. A friend once cracked the lame joke that he'd set up a stall with me, the notice announcing The Prof Is In. Only I'd do it for free instead of charging 5 cents and in this case I was getting fed too. The Managing Partners' Forum asked me to

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-23226055140250257022011-05-10T09:00:00.001+01:002011-05-10T09:00:00.582+01:00

(Thanks to New Yorker)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-50914137023060752472011-05-07T18:37:00.000+01:002011-05-07T18:37:15.541+01:00

The changes to UK university funding are about to unleash myriad unintended consequences that the UK government has no doubt not thought of. Fees and bursaries are meant to go together like horses and carriages. This was brought home to me when I read an article on US law school grants in the New York Times. Grants for law students in the US are recent. They were considered unnecessary because

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-35350148692608436592011-05-01T18:56:00.001+01:002011-05-01T19:04:43.501+01:00

(thanks to Tate Gallery)Matisse's L'escargot shows a spiral deconstructed into a medley of elements. In a way it looks simple but mathematically spirals are excruciatingly complicated. There are Fibonacci spirals; spirals that look like M.C. Escher designed them; and there are spherical helices called Loxodromes. Have a look at this page if you're not satiated by these. For mind-bending

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-8143286511952190292011-04-27T11:48:00.000+01:002011-04-27T11:48:20.308+01:00

(thanks to Paul Mannix) Now the Alternative Business Structure action is hotting up thanks to Irwin Mitchell's declaration that it will incorporate and use its investment to take on the many mid-tier law firms wondering what to do come October 2011. If anyone is in the dark, this year the first ABS come into existence under the provisions of the Legal Services Act 2007. The legal profession is

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-6706041712798483192011-04-18T13:29:00.000+01:002011-04-18T13:29:15.828+01:00

With thanks to Peter D. Lederer via The Careerist with H/T to Solicitr. Three associates from a 200-lawyer firm in Tennessee talk about their average day. As they say.... Josh: "There's a lot of document touching."James: "A lot of my job is information management/document management."Dan: "You're never in control when you leave [the office]." And Vivia Chen notes the clip is not slick or cute

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-54698141681471315572011-04-17T12:48:00.000+01:002011-04-17T12:48:44.540+01:00

The picture above--taken from the Canal+ website--shows the despair and hopelessness in the faces that infects this series of Spiral 3: The Butcher of La Villette. This weekend I've been catching up on missed episodes (3 and 4) and watching 5 and 6. As subfusc and drear as the setting is, I find myself on tenterhooks for the next one. (Not the best simile, I know.) So far the series has

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-30815753533151445252011-04-16T09:19:00.000+01:002011-04-16T09:19:00.363+01:00

(thanks to Peter)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-45856492351359328022011-04-14T18:09:00.000+01:002011-04-14T18:09:24.215+01:00

(mobileindustryreview.com) The last two weeks have been hectic. My first week at the Law Without Walls ConPosium in Miami and then back to Brighton for the annual meeting of the Socio-Legal Studies Association meeting where I had organized the legal profession stream of papers. The difference between the two couldn't have been more startling. LWOW was innovative, sparkling and creative. SLSA

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-87091141384361035502011-04-08T12:00:00.000+01:002011-04-08T12:00:14.842+01:00

Today is the first day of the LWOW ConPosium when the students start presenting their Projects of Worth before international judging panels of academics, practitioners, entrepreneurs and more. Over two day 11 groups of students with their associated faculty will show their semester's work in a 50 minute workshop slot. We have students from New York, Miami, China,  and London. Culturally, it will

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-14026473750393010682011-04-07T23:39:00.000+01:002011-04-07T23:39:12.430+01:00

According to Adam Sampson, the Legal Ombudsman, consumers will be confused after October when alternative business structures set up. Because consumers will be able to select from lawyers and non-lawyers to do their wills, divorce or conveyancing, if something goes wrong their ability to complain will be curtailed. Sampson says he can only receive complaints about fully-qualified lawyers, not

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-29986421087185687122011-04-05T13:33:00.001+01:002011-04-05T16:45:51.397+01:00

Julie Adams has written an article in Accountancy Age speculating on new structures for professional partnerships. She makes it clear that younger partners do not see the traditional model enduring. Conventional partnerships will change into more "employee-owned" forms along the lines of the John Lewis department store model. See this discussion for how it works. This would enable employees and

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-15468767365647902652011-04-04T10:44:00.000+01:002011-04-04T10:44:16.922+01:00

There is no stopping the campaign against Solicitors from Hell. This saga is going to run. According to Mr Justice Tugendhat Rick Kordowski is abusing the process of the court by "seeking to cause the claimants to incur costs which he says they have no prospect of recovering from himself," reports the Law Society Gazette. Apparently Kordowski has 15 libel suits filed against him by lawyers who

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-59955216822756272792011-04-03T19:28:00.000+01:002011-04-03T19:28:28.317+01:00

After the smoothness of Silk (sorry if it sounds like a cigarette commercial), it's good to see the return (saison trois) of the gritty Spiral (with BBC website link) or Engranages in French (with French website link) on BBC4. In the first episode we get Jack the Ripper style murderers, paedophiles, dangerous pit bulls, and a touch of voodoo. All part of a normal day in Paris. We have

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-55575753118697941582011-04-01T11:22:00.000+01:002011-04-01T11:22:17.097+01:00

In a shock U-turn the government has decided to abandon the most controversial parts of the Legal Services Act. Alternative Business Structures will not be introduced in October, if at all. A spokesman from the Ministry of Justice said, "We have listened carefully to the concerns of the small firms and decided their preservation must come before innovation. Consumers are best served by

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-89998837215760107362011-03-29T22:38:00.000+01:002011-03-29T22:38:34.925+01:00

The paler Martha gets in the BBC drama Silk, and she is beginning to look like a character from a Noh play, the more tanned and fit the others look. But our hearts bleed for her. That was the motif for tonight's programme--literally and metaphorically, blood on the floor everywhere. Martha miscarries; a chambers' putsch narrowly missed a blood-letting; and a judge inconveniently bleeds all over

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-85075775325435442192011-03-27T09:09:00.001+01:002011-03-27T09:09:00.316+01:00

Last week I attended the Weblaw Forum in Berne, Switzerland, where I talked about the changes to the profession and practice from a global perspective. While there I took a break and found myself taking the funicular to the top of Gurten. One of the first things I saw was this sign with Bern's mascot enjoyably licking the foam of his Gurten beer. Love it!

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-40423711150853663472011-03-25T13:51:00.000Z2011-03-25T13:51:09.316Z

 But it probably won't be, actually (thanks to Roll On Friday--I had to use this)Roll On Friday reports that the Bar Council has started a new website to raise applications from ethnic minorities and women. See No Bar to the Bar. We can say it is a start but.... ROF reckons the Bar Council is being coy since it says nothing about the horrendous costs involved in becoming a barrister: over

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-48310456398116357742011-03-24T18:10:00.001Z2011-03-24T18:28:08.486Z

(thanks to fistofblog.com) "I did not study at Oxford and the LSE to end up working with people who graduated from Leicester or Queen Mary," wrote one person on legalweek.com in response to the news last week that magic circle outfit Freshfields is extending the number of universities from which it recruits.This is one of the comments that attached itself to the Legal Week story on how law

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-87445529637294898302011-03-23T19:08:00.000Z2011-03-23T19:08:37.636Z

(thanks to ceect.com) Today the Law Society has agreed to allow the Solicitors' Regulation Authority (SRA) to become a licensing authority for Alternative Business Structures (ABS). The reason for my post title is that we weren't sure if the Law Society would actually do this. The Law Society has kept everyone on tenterhooks. Whether it was the backwoodsmen who resolutely oppose ABS and

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-43527506693115433192011-03-23T11:11:00.000Z2011-03-23T11:11:35.604Z

(thanks to BBC) I've been away in Switzerland recently but managed to catch to catch episode 5 of Silk. How can I dislike and like a TV show so much? But this one brings out the schizophrenia in me. (My blog posts are now linked into the BBC web page for the programme!) Episode 5 gave us the light and dark, the good and evil, neatly reversed, just in case we missed the symbolism. Billy, the

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-26211397575968147022011-03-18T09:03:00.000Z2011-03-18T09:03:12.991Z

(thanks to gallery.rhino3d.com)Here we are in the 21st century and the big law firms have announced they are taking on board diversity. Three cheers you might say. In addition to Oxbridge they will now recruit from universities such as Queen's Belfast, Leicester, Queen Mary London, Cardiff, and Sussex. These are all well-known for being lower-caste universities and probably haven't had much

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-14737571122220091302011-03-15T19:06:00.000Z2011-03-15T19:06:56.640Z

Whoops! It happens...Rick Kordowski, owner of Solicitors from Hell has to pay £10,000 to a solicitor libelled by the site according to Mr Justice Lloyd Jones who was reported as saying the comments "were baseless, abusive, malicious, and an unwarranted slur on the competency and probity of a young lawyer." Kordowski is appealing the judgment. What really caught my eye, however, is the venomous

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-91809731357824199092011-03-13T23:26:00.000Z2011-03-13T23:26:53.502Z

(thanks to rizoning.com) Here is more on the North Carolina Bill to permit non-lawyers to own law firms and have ABS from Neil Rose at Legal Futures. It seems to have taken everyone by surprise. He quotes Mitt Regan of Georgetown saying that for large law firms there would be problems elsewhere in states that wouldn't permit this type of ownership. Yet multidisciplinary practices are accepted in

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-64179032666802860382011-03-09T10:00:00.001Z2011-03-09T10:00:11.256Z

(thanks to snippits-and-slappits.blogspot.com) Big Hat Tip to Jordan Furlong at law21 for this. There is a bill before the North Carolina senate to "Allow Nonattorney Ownership of PC Law Firms". See here for the bill. The Legal Services Act has arrived in the US. Astonishing! Surely, it's the work of Satan.

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-31346989759639893422011-03-08T23:05:00.000Z2011-03-08T23:05:56.545Z

The BBC is running a new legal drama called Silk. I watched my first episode tonight and the verdict: dire. It is plodding, panders to prejudice and convention, and looks tired. Something goes wrong when the Brits do legal drama. OK, that's a sweeping generalization, but it's not too far wrong. And this show makes it seem so even more. If you want to see good ones then you have to go back to

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-77818258306727355362011-03-03T22:03:00.000Z2011-03-03T22:03:36.508Z

I've been participating in a new educational venture for the past couple of months called "Law Without Walls" (LWOW). It sees current thinking on legal education as being out of touch with the modern world and other dynamic ways of thinking. In other words, it has become stale and narrow. There's not a lot to argue about there. What is interesting is that the arguments for radical change in

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-81005751899504388622011-02-24T12:45:00.000Z2011-02-24T12:45:14.383Z

(thanks to deal.com) Joe Flom died Wednesday 23 February 2011. The American Lawyer presents his obituary here. Victor Li has written reflection on Flom here. It might seem strange that a Harvard Law School graduate who ranked in the top 5 percent of his class and served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review would fail to land a job at any of New York's top law firms upon graduation. But

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-24429343201617547762011-02-22T20:02:00.000Z2011-02-22T20:02:49.180Z

(thanks to New Yorker) John scratches his head when the Legal Services Act 2007 unexpectedly introduces new kinds of "legal services providers" into the market. "Gosh, what have we done?"

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-11829675714324214742011-02-20T19:04:00.000Z2011-02-20T19:04:14.805Z

When a friend showed me this video, I was amazed. I love it. It's fresh, imaginative and seriously good. The Game jibes nicely with what Law Without Walls is trying to do. This is to take legal education away from the stodgy environment that it seems stuck in and that appears to have less relevance for the modern world. The Dutch law firm, Houthoff Buruma, with games maker, Ranj Serious Games,

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-59200721885996542882011-02-14T16:06:00.000Z2011-02-14T16:06:22.428Z

Neil Rose at Legal Futures discusses whether or not the Legal Services Board is needed or not, or at least in the future. He points out that it is on the list of schedule 7 of the Public Bodies Bill (the bonfire of the quangos). What he doesn't point out is that the bill is not sailing smoothly through parliamentary waters and schedule 7 may yet be breached and sink. The UK coalition came into

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-56924778040990523212011-02-11T15:28:00.000Z2011-02-11T15:28:52.521Z

 (Madrid Civil Courts of Justice: thanks to e-architect)To be read to the background of the Supremes "Baby Love", it seems judges' collective noses are getting bent out of shape by politicians lately. (I'm sorry for this but I could not resist.) Lord Phillips, president of the UK Supreme Court, has been complaining that because he has to negotiate his budget with the Ministry of Justice the

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-84693377343054157382011-02-03T13:53:00.000Z2011-02-03T13:53:01.780Z

(thanks to legalservices.gov.uk) The financial crisis has put a tremendous burden on ordinary people as they tackle debt, housing foreclosures, and more. Finance has particularly difficult rules which makes it hard for anyone to deal with these problems. Expert help is usually needed, but it's not cheap. This is where legal aid is supposed to step in and give assistance. Except on both sides of

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-21601162495531952482011-02-01T12:19:00.000Z2011-02-01T12:19:09.473Z

(thanks to New Yorker)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-50833370342965199102011-01-30T18:15:00.000Z2011-01-30T18:15:09.933Z

Ever since the New York Times (9 Jan 2011) wrote about the debt accumulated in law school, stories about the changing market for law graduates have been emerging. The key finding is that there is now a bifurcated market for law graduates. This is something Bill Henderson has been commenting on for a while now. Law job starting salaries are now located at two points: high--$160,000 and low--

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-12979931977953959462011-01-29T00:08:00.000Z2011-01-29T00:08:18.111Z

(thanks to markpeterdavis.com)The full organizational takeover of the professions is close to hand. Two stories in the Guardian give it to us straight. The College of Law and BPP, both private legal training companies, have introduced 2 year law degrees with an emphasis on preparation for practice rather than being educated in the law. According to this story one student has already turned down

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-48144162339956396822011-01-26T00:39:00.000Z2011-01-26T00:39:55.866Z

(thanks to mybikesforum.com) I googled for images of bills and got this. Wild Bill reviewed this Vanquish and I fell in love with it, so I left it in. In Law Without Walls the students have to undertake 'Projects of Worth'. One of the students emailed me today with an interesting problem. My project of worth is alternative strategies to the billable hour. I have read about the topic and I found

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-23874268771646394102011-01-23T15:10:00.001Z2011-01-23T15:16:01.179Z

(thanks to toonpool.com) My friend, Peter Lederer, sent me a picture--an infographic to be precise--that compares three phones with entertaining and useful visual cues. Lawyers have to handle complex data in big transactions and especially in litigation. They don't receive any training in this. William Twining in his work on evidence has developed Wigmore's evidence charts which is now beginning

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-14706938310544976882011-01-18T22:58:00.000Z2011-01-18T22:58:11.528Z

(thanks to OneForAll)The BBC showed a documentary tonight about the banking crisis and casino capitalism, which ties in nicely with another documentary released recently called "Inside Job". The BBC covers the British scene while Inside Job is mostly American coverage. In both films the bankers are shown to be reckless gamblers who have yet to show any remorse for their actions despite Bob

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-54028929588730521282011-01-14T16:42:00.000Z2011-01-14T16:42:59.496Z

It's the Kick-Off for Law Without Walls this weekend ((15-16 January 2011). We have 23 law students from University College London--site of Kick-Off--Peking University School of Transnational Law, and US law schools: Miami, Fordham, New York Law School, and Harvard. The program is packed with seminars on how to interview elites, planning group projects, interviewing thought leaders about various

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-25189557227348559672011-01-12T16:39:00.000Z2011-01-12T16:39:34.201Z

Conviction Production year: 2010 Country: USA Cert (UK): 15 Runtime: 107 mins Director: Tony Goldwyn Cast: Hilary Swank, Juliette Lewis, Melissa Leo, Minnie Driver, Sam Rockwell On general release, Friday 14 January 2011. Links to other websites of interest relating to topics in the film: The Innocence Project, New York Innocence Network UK (Has 30+ university projects) Guardian article on UK

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-28534767063454781522011-01-11T15:07:00.000Z2011-01-11T15:07:51.800Z

"Tell you what Buttercup"During law school Betty Anne Waters is desparately trying to think of ways of helping her brother, Kenny, prove his innocence. When we watch the film it all so seems so flimsy, that his blood group, "O", was found at the scene. One of the most common blood groups around but sufficient to convict. (Strains of Rumpole's rhapsody on blood stains in the Penge Bungalow murders

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-10518965116247585182011-01-10T16:51:00.000Z2011-01-10T16:51:17.791Z

Conviction is the true story of a working-class single mother who takes on the murder appeal of her brother. Only it's more complicated than that. Betty Anne Waters has to finish high school, get her college degree and go to law school and pass the bar exam before she can take on the case. Eighteen years later she succeeds. Betty Anne's brother, Kenny, is a roustabout. Every time a crime is

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-63616425821811012262011-01-06T18:08:00.000Z2011-01-06T18:08:56.106Z

Robert Rosen's wonderful dissertation has been published by Quid Pro Books. Here's the description by the publisher: The recognized study of the disparate roles that corporate attorneys play in representing and advising their institutional clients. Long passed around and cited by scholars and lawyers as an unpublished manuscript, the book is also accessible to a wide audience and includes

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-86743729612345661492011-01-01T12:35:00.000Z2011-01-01T12:35:53.989Z

(Orson Welles) I think it's reasonable to ask if Orson Welles truly was Socrates. Or at least they're twins. So the point of this post? Socrates said the unexamined life was not worth living. How did he know?* I love it. (Socrates)(*Thanks to Simon Munnery, Chuckle Club, NYE 2010)

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-63479786464988644332010-12-24T09:58:00.000Z2010-12-24T09:58:40.662Z

(thanks to bearskinrug) Merry Christmas to all courtesy of bearskinrug's Christmas deposition. I'm taking a short break till the New Year. Next year is going to be the big one. For the legal profession especially it will be make or break. It's going to be fun watching. But do remember... They're not just for Christmas, but for life!

John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com3