Law Life | Screaming Lawyer

Peace Throughout the Land? Bah, humbug

It was refreshing to see Robert Fisher QC’s comments in the past NZ Lawyer magazine saying that he’s generally in favour of disputes and that “the last thing we need is harmony throughout the land.” Good heavens, to say such a thing on what is virtually the eve of Christmas. It’s like Gordon Gekko saying [...]

Dec 12 2010 | Posted in Big Lawyers,Law Life | Read More »

“Have I Got A Deal For You!” – Lawyers Selling Real Estate

NZ Law Society president Paul Temm thinks lawyers need to be more engaged in the sale of real estate. They now have a significant opportunity to enter the real estate market he told a function held at the West Auckland offices of lawyer and realtor Rhonda Evans. Temm said that practitioners had for many years [...]

Dec 6 2010 | Posted in Changing Roles,Law Life,The Firm | Read More »

Too Many Lawyers Prompts Law Education Review in UK

The UK’s three biggest legal regulators have launched a review of legal education and training because of ‘lawyer oversuppy’. The Lawyer reports that the review by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board and the Institute of Legal Executives Professional Standards will examine routes to qualification and the requirements placed on law schools in light of [...]

Nov 21 2010 | Posted in Law Life,London Town | Read More »

Public Defence On The Lookout for Lawyers

LawFuel’s law jobs board is full of ads for the expanding public defence service, which is designed to complement – if that’s the word – the besieged legal aid system as it recruits up to 20 lawyers presently to man new offices in Hamilton, Porirua, Wellington and Christchurch – plus two more about to open [...]

Nov 7 2010 | Posted in Law Life | Read More »

The Law Life of “Dirty Law” – The Stuff They Don’t Want You To See

In the final version of Crude — the 2009 documentary on the epic environmental suit brought by Amazon tribespeople against Chevron Corporation in Ecuador — lead U.S. plaintiffs’ attorney Steven Donziger remarks: “This is something you would never do in the United States, but Ecuador, you know, this is how the game is played, it’s [...]

Nov 1 2010 | Posted in Law Life,Legal Exotica,Screaming Stateside | Read More »

Moving The Judges

NBR’s Judge Jock (Anderson) reports he was rightly horrified by a decision of nincompoops and numbskulls to evict Court of Appeal judges from digs within the grand setting of the Auckland High Court. The now sort-of-but-not-quite-yet fulltime Auckland branch of the C of A – the nation’s judicial engine room – has been shunted away [...]

Oct 20 2010 | Posted in Law Life,Lording It | Read More »

Shaky Law

Did it take this site to alert 27 legal academics who have put their names to a letter expressing their concern about the powers granted under the Canterbury Response and Recovery Earthquake Act, as reported last week? The turbo-driven law-making has bypassed or overriden a few centuries of legal safeguards in the click of a [...]

Sep 29 2010 | Posted in Law Life,The Hill | Read More »

Lawyering on in Christchurch

John Bowie – God and the government must be really mad with Canterbury. First the finance company, now the earthquake. But, it seems, the government has now come round even if God may still be making up His mind. And, for politicians anyway, it has to said that this is their Giuliani moment as Key [...]

Sep 8 2010 | Posted in Law Heroes,Law Life,The Firm | Read More »

Insomnia Driving You Screaming Mad?

Okay, sleeplessness might be seen as an occupational hazard for lawyers but this article indicated there are a few things lawyers can do to avoid those sleepless nights fretting over unbilled time, uncollected fees, the troublesome woman who wants custody of kids she abandoned all those years ago . . and just about everything else. [...]

Sep 4 2010 | Posted in Law Life,Legal Exotica | Read More »