After a brief outing into the newsworthy world of injunctions, I'm going back to more workaday matters. Keeping control of departmental budgets and getting value for money from external lawyers.



This isn't a popular topic. I've seen plenty of negative comment about the recent article in the Economist on legal services ("A less gilded future"http://econ.st/lMdImV). I have reservations about the article too, but not because of the line which offended… Read More

Right. This one is going to be a little different, more of a polemic. 



Before we get to talking about sex and cookery, let's discuss elitism and intellectual snobbery. Many of those reading this post are lawyers, and, judging by a continuing theme on twitter and in blogs, there are a good number of lawyers who believe that the law is an Olympian construct of the intellect, a triumph of ideas, far above the grubby world of business. This notwithstanding that many of history's eminent… Read More

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For a very few people, usually labelled as eccentric or rude, telling someone to their face what you really think of them comes naturally. But for most of us, it's something we have to learn. Unless we're taught how, most of us struggle to pass judgement (out-loud) on a person sitting opposite us. It feels faintly sociopathic, like Hannibal Lecter talking to Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. People go to great lengths to avoid it. But, in business life, telling people how they're… Read More