You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. So the saying goes, but if that means that it is impossible to make something of quality with inferior materials, it seems that scientists beg to differ. The Economist reports that a few weeks ago on August 5th, in London, approximately one hundred journalists… Read More »
Sitting on a bus recently in the Austrian Alps, I watched carefully as the driver inched along a narrow road twisting and turning above a ravine where many feet below a raging torrent of still melting snow rushed headlong downwards, ever downwards. Our driver was not aware of or concerned by how I felt about the… Read More »
Everywhere you look, information is being created. What is more, that information is being stored, often inadvertently. When the time comes for that information to be accessed and retrieved/managed, perhaps because of litigation, a subject access request, internal investigation or regulatory inquiry, many companies find themselves in real difficulty. Big Data, BYOD, social media and an array… Read More »
I am reliably informed that in the Government’s same sex marriage bill currently before Parliament, each one of us is to be allowed to be a husband or a wife depending on how we feel. In an effort to clarify the terms “husband” and “wife” the bill states that “husband” will “include a man or… Read More »
The TV series Mission:Impossible began with the team receiving a tape starting with the words: “Your mission,…. should you decide to accept it…”, followed by a brief description of the problem to be solved. Famously, the sequence ended with the words “This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck……” and then smoke would rise from… Read More »
My guess is that while most US readers will know what I am talking about, most readers this side of the Atlantic will not have a clue! Let me start with an uncontroversial suggestion that, in order to act in the best interests of clients and comply with their ethical obligations and those imposed by… Read More »
We all have our pet hates. Yours may be completely different from mine, but we all have views about things and people around us. It is part of being human and being capable of rational and, let’s be honest, also irrational thought. One of my pet hates is the unnecessary and unthinking use of jargon where… Read More »
Some time back, while researching the subject matter for an article I wanted to write, I came across a piece written by a lawyer in Tennessee. Isn’t the internet wonderful? It was clearly a scholarly and well researched article ( [The Duty to Preserve: Victor Stanley and its Progeny, ABA Section of Litigation Trial Evidence Committee,… Read More »
If you are staying abreast of the development of best practice after the coming into effect of the Jackson reforms, you are presumably following the series of articles by the indefatigable Judge Simon Brown QC, head of the Mercantile Court in Birmingham. Simon Brown has written a number of articles on the subject which have… Read More »
One hundred and sixty million. Occasionally, I find that, when following the news a fraction more closely than normal, I discover what might be described as coincidences. Over the past few weeks, I have noticed the figure of 160 million cropping up on more than one occasion. It is not a figure like a dozen… Read More »