Unusually for me, I found myself recently on a bus in a queue at road works at a bridge overlooking a swollen River Ouse on my way to London. I should explain that I do not always travel to London this way. On the day in question I fell foul of one of those increasingly… Read More »
“May you live in interesting times” is reputedly the English version or paraphrase of an ancient Chinese curse. Whatever its origin, the saying crops up in a variety of differing situations including a speech by Robert F Kennedy in 1966, a letter from Austen Chamberlain to a member of the US House of Representatives and… Read More »
5 weeks to go until Christmas! Having eschewed anything even faintly redolent of Christmas for the last two months since I saw the first Christmas decorations appear, I am bound to concede that with only a few days to go until the start of Advent, I am going to have to start to think about… Read More »
Environmental awareness has been in vogue for some years but it appears to have had little impact on the consciousness of litigation practitioners. Could it be that the all-pervasive fascination with green issues, sustainability and the carbon footprint has no relevance to lawyers in the litigation process? Environmental lawyers may well be familiar with green… Read More »
When I used to travel on business particularly in the countries of Latin America I used to enjoy the very real differences in the way lawyers worked and the institutions in which they operated. There are, of course, obvious differences between the way of life I was used to in the UK and in Continental… Read More »
Less than half the funds sought by putative litigation funder Burford Capital were subscribed last month as the London market’s second biggest listing of the year flopped. Only £80 million was provided by investors in the IPO on the AIM market. Burford had sought £200 million. The company needed the money to fund commercial disputes… Read More »
I hope you have not been put off by the title above and that you will read a little further! There is only a little bit of history to come but last week we may have seen a significant event to rival the attempt by King Charles I to arrest 5 sitting MPs by storming into… Read More »
Over the weekend I heard part of a programme on the radio in which two employees of Microsoft Research in California were discussing what they described as “digitising your life”. Apparently, this involves wearing some form of camera round your neck on a permanent basis which takes a photograph every 20 seconds and builds into… Read More »
A Salutary Tale of Disclosure Obligations Not everything in this blog is intended to be light hearted, as I found myself saying the other day. A kindly soul who had expressed approval of and interest in the blog had caused me to explain that there was intended to be a partly serious side to my… Read More »
The song – or lawyers’ lament perhaps – about the gap between the anticipated rush of litigation and the reality of what actually seems to be happening, might go something like this.. Where have all the hours gone? Long time passing Where has all the litigation gone? Long time ago Where have all the… Read More »