Monday morning with Alex Williams’ cartoons, 7th May 2012


This cartoon is by Alex Williams who draws the Queen’s Counsel cartoons for The Times and in numerous books including Lawyers Uncovered. He also does the cartoons for BabyBarista and has had two more excellent books published recently: 101 Ways to Leave the Law and 101 Uses for a Useless Banker. He offers almost all of his cartoons for sale at ÂŁ120 for originals and ÂŁ40 for copies and they can be obtained from this email infoatqccartoondotcom.

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May 7, 2012   Posted in: Cartoons  No Comments

Weekend video: ‘Michael Mansfield QC on Legal Aid cuts’

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May 5, 2012   Posted in: Video  No Comments

Employment Law: Johnson Controls v UK Atomic Energy Authority, EAT

When the service is conducted in a fundamentally or essentially different manner following the changeover, there is no service provision change under Reg 3(1)(b) of TUPE, but this is a question of fact in each case and requires an holistic assessment by the employment tribunal.
The claimant was a taxi administrator employed by Johnson Controls, which provided a taxi administration service for its client, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. UKAEA then terminated this arrangement and took the activity of booking taxis in-house. Instead of using a taxi service administrator, it decided its secretaries could book taxis directly with taxi firms. Booking taxis no longer existed as a centralised service.

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May 4, 2012   Posted in: Case Reports  No Comments

Intellectual Property Law: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc & Anr v Genentech Inc, Ch Div (Floyd J), 22/3/12

G’s patent, concerning the use of therapeutic agents to treat non-cancerous diseases by preventing angiogenesis, was valid and infringed by R’s product. “Obvious to try” played a part in the assessment of obviousness in certain cases; however it had to be obvious to try the invention, not merely obvious to embark upon a research programme which might lead to the invention. The patent was not insufficient on the basis that it claimed a therapeutic effect in all non-cancerous diseases, nor was it insufficient because work was required to develop the most refined embodiment of the inventive step.

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May 3, 2012   Posted in: Case Reports  No Comments

Personal Injury Brief Update Law Journal – over 600 articles now online!

For almost seven years now we’ve been running the Personal Injury Brief Update Law Journal which is written by over fifty barristers and other experts and has about ten new articles a month. The main Journal is subscription with a single price for the whole office and you can also sign up for a free newsletter which has monthly summaries of the important cases which might affect a personal injury practice. It’s written by practitioners for practitioners and over the years has accumulated over 600 articles, all of which are available online. It also has a specialist credit hire section with over forty articles on the subject and as part of this we’re giving access to subscribers to the new edition of Kevan and Ellis on Credit Hire as it is published chapter by chapter. To take a look, click here. If you know anyone else who might be interested, please do forward the link. Very many thanks, Tim Kevan

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May 2, 2012   Posted in: News  No Comments

Founder of GGW demands apology from senator for denying internship

Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis wants an apology from Sen. Mark Pryor after the politician called his once-in-a-lifetime internship on Capitol Hill a hoax,

Francis said he won the internship for $2,500 on a private charity auction site called BiddingforGood.com. He said that “It was for charity. I was trying to do a good thing. I thought it would be really cute and really fun”. Francis was asking for an apology because his name was used with the acronym FBI. Pryor already referred the case to the FBI to investigate whether there had been a crime committed regarding this incident.  The money involved was returned.

CNews

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May 1, 2012   Posted in: News  No Comments

Sponsored post: 5 of the biggest modern threats to British road users’ safety

Did you know that every six seconds someone is killed or seriously injured on the world’s roads? According to Unicef and the World Health Organisation, road crashes are the leading global cause of death for young people aged 10-24.

Such statistics are the reason why road safety associations are keen that the government and the public should never become complacent about the threats to the safety of all road users (including pedestrians).

Here are six of the biggest modern threats to British road users’ safety – all ones which have featured in the news during March and April 2012.

1. Moves to raise the speed limit

The idea of raising the speed limit, to many road safety campaigners, is about as practical and safe as the idea of raising the Titanic. However, it was announced earlier this month that the government will press ahead with trials of 80mph speed limits on specific stretches of motorways where variable speed limits are already in place.

Commenting on the plans, David Williams MBE, CEO of road safety association GEM Motoring Assist, said: “We question why public money is being wasted on this experiment at a time of such severe financial restraint as we can see no place for any change to the 70mph speed limit. From both a safety and environmental stand point it is impossible to justify raising the limit.

2. Bizarre driving habits

Last month (March 2012) Confused.com revealed the results of a survey which highlighted how some of the nation’s drivers are compromising their, and other people’s road safety, with some bizarre driving habits.

The research discovered that:

• 15 per cent of men have had a shave while driving

• 10 per cent of women drivers have applied make up behind the wheel

• Almost one in four drivers have driven in bare feet

• 25 per cent have driven while wearing pyjamas

The example in the last bullet point would be frowned upon in the US state of California where driving in a dressing gown is outlawed.

3. Careless car buyers

Has the second-hand car you’ve just bought had one careful previous owner and how would you know that this is the case?

Earlier this month, research released by MyCarCheck.com revealed that 12 per cent of consumers are willing to buy a car without a logbook detailing the car’s history changing hands.

Roger Powell of MyCarCheck.com said: “Would these 12 per cent of people also buy a house without the title deeds?”

Then there are the safety implications of driving around in a car which, unknown to you, has previously been used for scrap or been written off in a crash.

4. Poorly-maintained roads

The Highways Agency recently announced that it is to turn off the lights on a five-mile section of the M4 in order to reduce carbon emissions. The decision threw a spotlight on the need to maintain Britain’s ageing road system with the road marking industry quickly pointing out that turning off the lights is only acceptable if white lines are maintained to the highest standards so that they are clearly visible in the dark.

According to the Road Safety Markings Association, over half of the UK’s road markings are “barely visible”.

Commenting on the subject, David Williams of GEM said: “In most parts of the country white lines are now missing or extremely faint. And many others are cracking and crumbling, making them very dangerous to two-wheel drivers.”

5. Changing the clocks

Earlier this year 10 MPs employed time-wasting tactics to ensure that a proposal to end the practice of putting the clocks back each Autumn could not be discussed properly in parliament.

David Williams of GEM said: “We were bitterly disappointed by the outcome of the Daylight Saving Bill. Road accident rates continue to rise each autumn directly after the clocks go back. Introducing lighter evenings throughout the year will make our roads a safer place by increasing visibility.”

Of course, the road safety situation isn’t all doom and gloom in the UK. The Lighter Later supporters will have another chance to present their campaign to parliament in May 2012 and advances in road safety technology continue to be made. You can find out more about some of the world’s best life-saving road safety inventions here.

James Christie writes for GEM Motoring Assist. Contact GEM to find out more about the comprehensive breakdown cover they provide to UK drivers.

Picture by Jo Sau.

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April 30, 2012   Posted in: News  No Comments

Monday morning with Alex Williams’ cartoons, 30th April 2012


This cartoon is by Alex Williams who draws the Queen’s Counsel cartoons for The Times and in numerous books including Lawyers Uncovered. He also does the cartoons for BabyBarista and has had two more excellent books published recently: 101 Ways to Leave the Law and 101 Uses for a Useless Banker. He offers almost all of his cartoons for sale at ÂŁ120 for originals and ÂŁ40 for copies and they can be obtained from this email infoatqccartoondotcom.

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April 30, 2012   Posted in: Cartoons  No Comments

Weekend video: ‘Mitchell and Webb – Slightly Less Than Two Drinks’

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April 28, 2012   Posted in: Video  No Comments

Social media dinotopia in law law land

This article was first published in The Global Legal Post 27 April 2012 entitled “Connect and survive” and is reproduced with kind permission.

Social media is not just a place for people to share their holiday snaps or keep up with celebrity gossip, says Chrissie Lightfoot. Business lawyers need to get chatting and tweeting or risk extinction.

I’m guilty. Guilty beyond reasonable doubt of having an addiction – of being a social media, social networking, social savvy junkie.

And I’m here to defend my case against the cynics who continually persecute and ridicule me and my fellow junkies in the misguided belief that social media is a fad, a trend – a charade even.
How many times have I and fellow travellers had to listen politely to the smug bluster of middle-aged know-alls pompously promulgating the argument that the beneficiaries of social media are limited to dysfunctional teenagers who have lost the ability to communicate by traditional human means, or fading ‘celebrities’ who are trying to generate some temporary public interest in their near-forgotten careers?

Countless times, is the answer. But I submit that we lawyers – and all those working in our law firms – mustn’t be prejudiced by the blinkered views of the frightened or lazy. Instead we should embrace the extraordinary benefits of social media. Why? Because of the simple and practical business phenomenon of the ‘survival of the savviest’.

Joining the dots

Let’s join these dots: global economic crisis, emerging economies, increased competition, population and employment time bombs, stretched resources (economic, physical, environmental), artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, genetics, social networking, the evolution of web 2.0 to 4.0, runaway technological acceleration, working patterns and lifestyle change, consumer sovereignty, spoilt-for-choice clients, too many ‘fat’ law firms, too many lawyers and increasing moves to dispense with lawyers at every level.
In the contemporary business environment, there are only three kinds of lawyer: unemployed, relatively low-paid assembly line workers and top-end super-lawyers. The third category is populated by those with the ability continually to generate income through attracting, relating to and serving clients in the space they occupy for play and work. In other words, cyber-space – social media and social networks.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the American inventor, scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted that by 2010 computers would ‘become essentially invisible – woven into our clothing, embedded in our furniture and environment’. He said they would tap into the ‘world-wide mesh’ and that we’d have wireless internet communication at all times. He was right, as the widespread adoption of smart ‘phones and tablets for both work and leisure demonstrates. And in 2010, Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg said ‘over the next five years or so, social networking will make it possible to pick any industry and rethink it’.

Playground and office

So let’s consider the legal profession. Because of the ubiquity of the worldwide web and the internet in business, not even the traditionally conservative legal sector has been able to ignore it. Social media has become an integral part of that environment – it is evolving into our 21st-century playground and office space; there are some 1.2 billion active users on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ – totalling a sixth of the world’s population.

Law firm clients, prospective clients, competitors, friends and family use social media. If lawyers do not engage they are going to be excluded from the globally networked society and collaborative community. They will feel ostracised because they will be ignorant of the context in which the seven vices – wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony – are now played out on line. As lawyers, if we hope to represent clients – whether in contentious or non-contentious matters – we’re going to have to understand and empathise with them in the space they frequent.

Social media is a medium through which we can interact on a more personal level with contacts, show-case our professional accomplishments, expand our knowledge, amplify our core messages, start and monitor conversations, find potential customers, carry out public relations, manage our (brand) reputations and provide extraordinary client service by satisfying the expectations of our customers in ‘real-time’.

With social media, a little effort can produce a return of a four, five, or even six-figure instruction, reaching a potential annual seven-figure revenue from social networking activity alone. With potential numbers like those, why wouldn’t we use social media?

The bottom line is that being a successful lawyer in the 21st century requires being sociable in 21st-century media. Lawyers who use the free social media streams will have a higher survival rate. And that’s why, all things considered, I’m happy confessing my guilt as a social savvy junkie. The defence rests.

Chrissie Lightfoot
The Entrepreneur Lawyer, CEO EntrepreneurLawyer Limited.
Author of The Naked Lawyer: RIP to XXX – How To Market, Brand & Sell YOU!

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April 27, 2012   Posted in: News  No Comments