The age of the internet has given plenty of people the opportunity to tell the world about their lives. Whether its celebrity twitterers like Stephen Fry or anonymous lawyers, there’s something for everyone. We’ve had solicitors diarising tough days in the office and trainee barristers letting the world know what its really like to undergo the trial of a pupillage.

So how does the idea of someone sending in their after-hours exploits to the New York Magazine grab you? A …

There’s not a lot to thank striking postal workers for but there’s always an exception…

Lord Justice Elias has quashed the conviction of a speeding driver in the High Court because a statutory police letter failed to arrive within the 14-day legal deadline. Thousands like him could avoid a fine and three points on their licence as the backlog of post continues to suffer long delays.

Although upstanding citizens generally like to see the laws of the land adhered …

Not in the sense that they are paid too much because they get more than the average worker; or more to the point, more than me. But in the sense of business economics. According to Professor Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal Services Policy Institute, they are and this will be detrimental when it comes to attracting external investment. The Gazette refers to extracts of a speech considering potential business models for the Legal Services Act 2007, in which …

Whoever it was, not everyone was listening.

Ambulance chasing TV ads are about as bad as it gets over here for lawyers pimping out their services. Oh, and the odd bit of dodgy website marketing.

But when it comes to excess our American cousins know how to supersize most things. Including stimulating the the cringe reflex.

If you feel yours hasn’t had a work out for a while click here to visit Stephen L. Snyder’s site and press play.

Courtesy of ATL

The last year has seen major changes for junior-level lawyers. Mainly because they have either been booted out or have been kept on whilst colleagues have vanished around them. That’s not all however. Firms have taken the opportunity to revisit their strategy going forward and implement new structural ideas in the wake of the economic crisis.

Clifford Chance is to ask its senior associates to choose one of 13 nominated industry sectors for their career path rather than just choosing …

Grubby, very grubby.

Alan Benstock, 51, a former deputy coroner for West Yorkshire and former vice-chairman of the Law Society’s probate section, was sentenced to 22 months for thefts that occurred while he was working at Wakefield firm Lister Croft between March and April 2006.

Benstock set up a charitable trust on the sly under the name of Lister Croft, into which he deposited funds from the estates of three of his dead clients. He …

More award excitement, this time for Scottish law firm Harper Macleod.

The firm won Best Managed Firm Award and the People Management Award and was also a runner up in the Client Focus category at the Managing Partners Forum European Practice Management Awards.

Professor Lorne Crerar, chairman of Harper Macleod, said in The Journal Online : “We are extremely proud to have received these awards, which recognise the efforts we make to develop and manage our people. Our approach has enabled …

The controversial organisation favoured by stars such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise has been dealt a blow by the French legal system. The Church of Scientology was convicted of fraud and fined more than €500,000 by a Paris court on Tuesday. France has always regarded Scientology as a sect and refused to recognise it as a religion. Unlike the US tax authorities which state that it is "operated exclusively for religious and charitable purposes", the French courts take …

It’s well know that online classifieds are not just used for selling cars and advertising spare bedrooms. Even social networking sites have had their ‘innocent’ intentions led astray by those wishing to meet more than friends via broadband. Some of SolicitR’s most popular posts come from the US online classifieds site Craigslist where a host of purported lawyers advertise their need for secretaries , PA’s , gold diggers and companionship . For the most part any respondent will be …

When it comes to finding your career mentor and sticking close to them to enhance your prospects, Facebook could provide a useful bit of cement. On the other hand, it could be an unwelcome loss of personal privacy. So what to do when you get that friend request dilemma? Obviously, if you really must spend a quality nauseating amount of time hanging out with your boss and being all buddy buddy then jump right in. But if you wan’t …

We had the Lawyer Awards back in June this year and, more recently, the winners of the Law Society’s Excellence Awards 2009 were announced at a prestigious black tie dinner last week.

Here are some of the winners:

Solicitor of the Year – Private Practice
Jason McCue – H20 Law LLP

Junior Lawyer of the Year
Natasha Catterson – Fisher Meredith LLP

Advocate of the Year
Paul Bowen – Doughty Street Chambers

Legal Executive of the Year
Darren Hill – United Utilities

AWS Legal Business Woman of the Year
June …

Many small firms had problems this year with rocketing insurance premiums. Thousands of Britain’s high street solicitors faced crippling increases to the cost of their professional indemnity insurance because of the threat of negligence cases arising from the recession. Adding to the controversey, it has emerged that complaints have been made by firms with African and Asian sounding names that insurers discriminated against them in the run up to this year’s PII renewal deadline. The Gazette reports that:

The Law …

They are an absolute necessity to see how serious you are.

Personal Assistant fo Lawyer (downtown Dallas)
Date: 2009-09-28, 11:34AM CDT
Reply to: gigs-qwdsr-1396354665@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads? ]

Attractive and high-powered Dallas Lawyer looking for a very attractive, sexy and fun female to serve as a Personal Assistant. We have a sometime intense work environment and need to decompress when things calm down. Pay is negotiable, in addition to bonuses for a job well done. If interested, please reply WITH PICS AND …

Bernie went straight to number one when the size of his scam was unmasked. In the aftermath all sorts of lurid revelations have emerged. The latest lawsuit filed by plaintiffs lawyer Joseph Cotchett paints a stark contrast between Madoff’s former life and his new routine in prison…

According to the ABA Journal the expanded lawsuit alleges cocaine was so prevalent in Bernard Madoff’s office that it was once called the North Pole. It describes a culture of “sexual deviance” and …

Fingers in the till…

Kate Johns, 39, deputy head of legal at the London office of Japanese bank Tokyo Mitsubishi conned colleagues out of more than £7 million in 2006. She was found guilty in Southwark Crown Court yesterday of using letters of credit to obtain a money transfer by deception and acquiring criminal property.

The fraud was primarily aimed at keeping a failing airline afloat. But Johns also received gifts from the recipient in return which were apparently used to …

If they’re doing it over there, how long before it comes over here. Reuters reports that a New York law firm, Tacopina Siegel & Turano, is to be the subject of a new reality series, "Legal Ease." We are not familiar with the firm but a quote from the NYT says on the firm’s website : "Mr. Tacopina is to the defense bar what Donald Trump is …

The Lehman fallout is keeping wheels of professional services very well oiled through the downturn.  Administrators, PwC have been raking in the fees like nobody’s business. In fact they are nearing an all time record with £154m billed for the first year. On the back of that, legal advisers, Linklaters have generated £68.9m in fees. Meanwhile, in the US legal fees for work relating to the collapse of Lehman Brothers are nearly $200m, according to Securities and Exchange Commission …

Has it really come to this?

Kaplan is to introduce a BVC entry test despite the Office of Fair Trading questioning the Bar Standard Board’s plans to introduce an aptitude test for the course. The test will be conducted in February next year, with successful candidates going on to form the first-ever intake of Kaplan’s BVC the following September.

Although the OFT’s concerns over competition were a sticking point for the BSB, there is nothing to stop individual law schools introducing their own entry tests.

Feel like tearing your boss a new one or wrapping a monitor round a colleague’s head. You probably need to step out and chill for a bit. But if you just want to have a strongly worded discussion about strategy or a robust exchange of ideas, then it might be ok to go right ahead; from the BBC:

New research suggests that companies would prosper by encouraging a robust exchange of ideas, even if this descends into a heated argument, …