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Indecent Proposal on Wall Tweet

By Chrissie Lightfoot 

Chrissie Lightfoot is CEO of EntrepreneurLawyer Limited where she advises professional service firms (and their individual people) globally on marketing, personal branding, sales, social media, social networking and innovation. The (London) Times newspaper recently reported Chrissie as one of the Top Ten Best Legal Tweeters. She is a non-practising solicitor, an entrepreneur, international keynote speaker and author, best noted for her groundbreaking book The Naked Lawyer: RIP to XXX – How to Market, Brand and Sell YOU!   

First published in the Law Society Gazette, 24 August 2011

 

 

As lay-offs continue to sweep through Wall Street I got thinking about our legal world and the movie Indecent Proposal.

There’s a thought provoking and inspiring line spoken by Demi Moore at the very start of the film, as she is reflects on her (film) husband’s view that ‘A life without risk is like no life at all’. 

I agree.

To truly experience living, and not merely existing throughout our careers, business and life, the progressive evolutionary dynamics of our present decade (and beyond for that matter) is compelling us to get out of our comfort zones, to dare to be different and ultimately, to re-invent ourselves.

In a climate of fear, low morale and the unknown – something we’re all (arguably) dealing with right now – I reckon we need to adapt, innovate and feel inspired by both the finger biting challenges and extraordinary opportunities staring us in the face.

But to do this we will need to take some risks.

 

Writer Tim Kevan tells TotallyLegal about his second BabyBarista novel 'Law and Peace'

Tim Kevan

Tim Kevan is the author of ‘Law and Peace' and 'Law and Disorder' which are both published by Bloomsbury and available on Amazon. For further information, visit www.timkevan.comand http://timkevan.blogspot.com.

Having written my first BabyBarista novel Law and Disorder a little while back, last year I was faced with the task of writing book two. This came as more of a challenge than the first given that I couldn’t simply use the stresses and strains of pupillage to drive the plot along and instead had to look to other themes and stories. In the end, I did just what I’d done in book one and let the characters loose to tell their own stories.

What eventually came out was Law and Peace, published by Bloomsbury this May and which thankfully has garnered some decent reviews with The Daily Mail describing it as “highly recommended” and a “funny, sharp account of backstabbing Bar life” and broadcaster Jeremy Vine calling it “a novel bursting with invention”.

Charon QC #WithoutPrejudice Podcast TONIGHT

Tonight is the Charon QC fortnightly #WithoutPrejudice podcast, including:

Analysis of the law relating to the riots, a review of a number of important human rights cases and the further developments on the #Hackedoff  campaign. David Allen Green and Carl Gardner will be at the table as always along with former Lib-Dem MP Dr Evan Harris, David Wales, a lawyer in private practice and Adam Wagner, a practising barrister at 1 Crown Office Row and editor of the UK Human Rights blog.

It will be an extended edition of 1 hr 15 minutes and, hopefully, we will be able to provide some background to the law being used to deal with looters and stimulate discussion. With five lawyers and an ex-politician it should be a lively edition.

Disciplinaries and Human Rights

A decision was handed by the High Court this week on a thorny issue of how far the Human Rights Act applies to internal disciplinary hearings. There has already been a suggestion that an employee may in certain circumstances allowed to have legal representation at an internal disciplinary on Human Rights grounds (as in, for example R v. Governors of X School); and in Mattu v. Coventry and Warks NHS Trust the High Court considered whether Article 6 of the Human Rights Act entitled an employee to an ‘independent and impartial panel’ to hear his disciplinary hearing.

Mr Mattu was a consultant with the NHS Trust, who was dismissed. He argued before the High Court that his dismissal should be set aside, amongst other things on Human Rights grounds. Every employer charged with dealing with a disciplinary issue has a duty to act impartially in hearing any disciplinary matter. An employer must always attempt to be objective, and not to reach a conclusion until all parts of the evidence have been considered by the person carrying out the disciplinary hearing. Failure to do so is likely to be a breach of the ACAS Code of Practice and could lead to a finding of unfair dismissal.