totallylegal

To be or not to be

Media interest in Jon Venables continues apace, with no sign of abating. As always in these cases, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and speculation is rife. His return to prison for breaching the terms of his parole has led to a feeding frenzy, not helped by the somewhat contradictory information coming from the Ministry of Justice.

Given the circumstances of his notoriety and the callous murder of Jamie Bulger eighteen years ago, Jon Venables is doomed to be the object of media interest, possibly for the rest of his life. 

When he was released from custody in 2001, as with anybody convicted of murder, he was on licence for life. This means that he can be returned to custody if he breaches the conditions of his licence, or if he commits a further offence. Details are awaited.

At Death's Door

Assisted suicide, mercy killing, euthanasia – call it what you will – simply won’t go away, and it promises to run and run for years to come.

In the recent past, we have been treated to the outpourings of Martin Amis and Terry Pratchett on euthanasia and assisted suicide, and both merit our careful consideration.

Martin Amis, I suspect with tongue-in-cheek, advocates “euthanasia booths” on street corners where the elderly can end their lives with a martini and a medal. He predicts a “silver tsunami” of increasingly elderly and thoroughly useless people, stinking out the restaurants and cafés and shops, in constant conflict with the younger generation. He has a point, although not attractively made. More and more of our precious resources will have to be devoted to them, from the doctor’s surgery, to the hospitals, to the care homes and finally to the hospices. And as we all know, the state pension was devised to support the elderly into their mid-seventies, not into their eighties and nineties.

Psychology sells itself in business

Stop selling, drink coffee.

A strange mantra – ‘Stop selling, drink coffee’ – but the proof of the latte is in the drinking.

Selling is not always what you believe your job entails. As a solicitor or barrister, you might have thought your profession took you away from the selling arena. That was until the need for a ‘client portfolio’ was mentioned. You need to protect the clients you have from hungry competition and win new business in a difficult trading environment.

The bottom line is that businesses succeed due to what they sell. So, if you were given the advice to ‘stop selling, drink coffee’ in order to succeed’, would you follow it?

Fitting in with a firm’s strategy

What sorts of things are on your wish list for your dream job? The work you want to do, the reputation of the firm, salary, benefits, career prospects, location, likeable people and a good environment? I would agree with all of those. However, there is one element that is often not given the consideration it warrants, if indeed it is thought about at all.

The question is: Do you fit in with what the firm is trying to achieve in a strategic sense? Do you even know what that is? Don’t depend on your prospective employer deciding on the answer, as they may have given little thought to it themselves. If this is the case, then you should start to hear alarm bells. A firm that has no clear vision of where it wants to go (or has not devised a plan for getting there) is an outfit that is likely to drift on at best and lurch from one crisis to another at worst.

How the BabyBarista came into being

Tim Kevan is barrister-turned-novelist and creator of the infamous BabyBarista. Totallylegal editor Natalie Harris asks him about how he came to write a novel for Harry Potter’s publisher, Bloomsbury.


Back in early 2007, I had been practising as a barrister at 1 Temple Gardens for some nine years and was enjoying the life of a common law practitioner based in London. But I’d always dreamt of living by the sea and the surf, and maybe even of writing a novel. I just couldn’t quite see how it could be done.

Lawyers: How to adapt to the changing face of law firms

Andrew Woolley of the niche successful virtual Family law, Woolley & Co, recently observed on his firms’s ezine:

“In 20 years' time, the landscape for law firms will look very different. There could be as many as two thirds fewer law firms and large providers – people like Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda – will be offering off-the-shelf legal services that currently require the specific expertise of a law firm.

“During the recession, large numbers of lawyers have been made redundant. This is highly unusual as firms normally do what they can to hold on to their talent. So those making changes in staffing must be looking to industry changes in the future.

The Borneo Dilemma

I previously wrote about how Advocates for International Development (A4ID) had launched their Newly Qualified Lawyers' Programme, as one way in which firms show their Corporate Social Responsibility.

As Michael Smyth of Clifford Chance said in a feature I wrote for In-House Lawyer, “it is considered as part of the metrics for bonuses, and certainly it is a factor in determining the ‘A’ list for partnership”.

Smyth, (then), was concerned in case “the glamorous end of the work in terms of international pro bono supplants community based activity which is more attractive to the younger lawyer”.

There are those, like him, who feel that many lawyers doing voluntary work within the confines of their firm’s CSR policy can do good work at home; others, like A4ID, feel they should offer lawyers the chance to use their professional skills.

Doing good work abroad is good for NQs and firms alike

Every New Year starts with good resolutions. Lose weight, drink less, give up smoking, work smarter, as we try to make ourselves better people.

Some, however, may consider helping others as their challenge for 2010. There is no shortage of opportunities to do so; LawWorks, for example, thrives on such solicitors, and City law firms, like Clifford Chance, are recognised for their staff emphasis on corporate responsibility at home and abroad.

Newly qualified (NQ) lawyers in City firms may feel that they have little to offer here, facing as they do changing retention rates, salary freezes, and increased uncertainty.

Yet one initiative launched by Advocates for International Development (A4ID) in partnership with Challenges Worldwide (CWW), deserves attention from NQs. At a well-attended launch at CMS Cameron McKenna’s offices, delegates at the evening session heard about the launch of the Newly Qualified Lawyers' Programme.

A Christmas stocking-filler

Christmas is a time for giving; there’s always room for gifts that have one’s career in mind. There are relatively few books for assistant solicitors about how to succeed at the business of law, looking at the human side of progressing one’s career within a law firm. One book that does this is Juggling the Big 3 for Lawyers: Brand, Business, Leadership, by ex-lawyer, Jennifer Overhaus.

For a start, it illustrates its wisdom, not just by anecdotes drawn from Overhaus’s own career in US tech firms and a Magic Circle firm, but also from case studies drawn from business, politics, and the law, whilst the glossy text is also full of diagrams, cartoons, and graphs. Atypical stuff, perhaps, for those who have honed their career wisdom on Glanville Williams and Richard Susskind, but a surprisingly digestible read, after the Christmas turkey.  
 

Seasons greetings from totallylegal

We’re drawing close to the end of what has been a tough year for everyone – whether you’re a lawyer, legal executive, paralegal or are newly qualified. However, the people within our industry have always been largely resilient to adversity and open to challenges, and will continue to face them head-on in the New Year.

There’s lots to look forward to in 2010 – not least the prospect of finding your next high-flying legal role or identifying new career opportunities.

This blog is your platform to have your say, comment on news, and even write your own features. If you want to share your expertise and build your online profile, be sure to get in touch with our editorial team.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at totallylegal.

Claire Whisker
Director, totallylegal

Claire is a qualified barrister and solicitor. She has four years experience in the Commercial Litigation department with DLA Phillips Fox and a further two years in the Commercial Insurance department at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain. Claire joined totallylegal in 2002.

"I’m a Newly Qualified lawyer … please help!" (FREE bottle of bubbly for the best response)

There are so many Newly Qualified lawyers out there, yet so few jobs to match. Figures are continually growing; 2009 saw a dramatic rise in NQs and I am sure early 2010 will be no exception.

I imagine that 2009 and the first part of 2010 will not go down in history as the very best time to qualify as a lawyer – in particular, a lawyer who wishes to specialise in any field that was not in any way contentious. I’m thinking of commercial property, M&A…and when was the last Public listing?

The glass elevator effect

The proverbial ‘glass ceiling’ that prevents women from progressing to the top of their field has been widely scrutinised in legal circles. The profession has always provoked gender-related criticism, often with good reason: research suggests that only around 15 per cent of all partners at legal practices are women.

Evidently, the recession has enforced existing barriers, with demotions and redundancies the common subject of office gossip across law firms nationwide. Rumours surrounding the rate of female departures are circulating from within top firms including Allen & Overy, Bird & Bird and Clifford Chance. However, since HR departments are generally reluctant to comment on the exact number of redundancies (not least the gender breakdown), a grey area exists. It’s no surprise then that office sentiment is one of confusion and fear – especially if you are a woman.

Published by Google Inc

In the spirit of new blogs and in honour of the ongoing ‘to pay or not to pay’ debate surrounding online content, it got me thinking about the value of web publishing.

The law has undoubtedly encountered difficulties processing the concept of such publishing; namely, what counts as ‘published’ in the true sense? Does it solely apply to printed material represented by books, newspapers and journals?

Well, no, unless you’ve been living on a desert island for the past decade (and even that probably has Wi-Fi access). A publisher is a provider of written information to an audience; the internet has borne the largest global audience ever. No arguments there.

Consider Google Inc. With an estimated market cap at around $170 billion, it’s probably the most valuable portal to online content. But is it a publisher?

New trends for a new decade

Fireworks are standing by to signal the dawning of a new decade. It’s a time for both reflection and New Year’s resolutions. It’s also hopefully the start of a return to a more prosperous time for the whole of the legal profession.

It’s fair to say that 2009 has been a year of highs and lows. As a seasoned recruiter, the end of a year is time to predict what will be hot or indeed will be not so hot in 2010.

One key observation on this turbulent year is of the practitioner who could readily be identified as the client’s primary contact and key worker, and who became invaluable to the firm. This was certainly the person successfully surviving the dreaded 3Rs of the recession: restructuring, reorganisations and redundancies.

The risky business of blogging

A few years ago, there was a blogging boom. Bloggers caught on to the fact that, by placing a journal entry online, they would have an instant audience. The allure of self-publishing has since attracted many people to join the global blogosphere.

The blogosphere encompasses all kinds of blogs – personal, professional, business and themed. It’s a largely informal, casual and instantaneous environment. However, a blog is still a type of publication and therefore it still has all the legal implications, risks and potential liabilities that you would expect.

Welcome to the totallylegal blog

The legal profession is changing. The internet has breathed new life into what was once considered a predominantly bureaucratic job. Savvy lawyers are switching on to an international community of blogs, news feeds, social media, e-discovery, and even law journal e-zines.

Welcome to the new-look totallylegal – where we’ve taken inspiration from digital technology and used it to upgrade our technology platform to bring you our new blog.