Jonathan Goldsmith
Jonathan Goldsmith is Law Society Council member for EU matters and a former secretary general of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe. All views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Law Society Council
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OpinionEscaping Donald Trump’s mind
Lawyers’ efforts to gain Trump's attention last week seem to have come to nothing.
OpinionOn not being Brooklyn Beckham
Social media is a compulsion we carry in our pockets, and can’t resist looking at for longer and longer. It must be having an impact on the solicitor-brain.
OpinionI have seen the future, and we survive
There may be big potential changes ahead, but I predict they will not be fatal to the sector.
OpinionTwo hopeful cases for the legal profession
The outcome of the cases last week, at opposite ends of our continent, bring good news.
Opinion'A stone in the shoe' saves nine - online
Now that international law has been so definitively incinerated in Venezuela, our ability to resist the tech/AI flood will be almost nil.
OpinionSomething is going to snap in 2026
Treatment of solicitors directly contradicts the government’s overall stated aim of deregulation.
OpinionNew selling point: we are human
Solicitors have one superpower which AI cannot take away. We are a trusted human source.
OpinionWho’s erasing whom? – a Christmas story
Here is a feel-good tale, at a time of year when feel-good tales are expected as part of the seasonal background, along with tinsel and carols.
OpinionPutting the regulatory genie back in the bottle
I start with a small matter, which is symptomatic of a larger one.
OpinionKim Kardashian’s psychics and the digitalisation of justice
In due course, all justice will be digitalised and we will all be properly trained. But when, and with what resources?
OpinionAspiring Nobel Peace Prize candidate conducts lawfare
President Trump’s defamation claim against the BBC has brought out lawyers and non-lawyers in force to give advice.
OpinionStopping the rule of law from becoming the rule of cliché
Nothing original is ever said on the topic of rule of law at international legal meetings. We can’t even agree what the phrase actually means.
OpinionSRA failures – planning for the aftermath
‘Just sort it out!’ is a reasonable request for the profession to make of the Law Society. But there is a chasm between what many would like the Society to do, and what it can actually do.
OpinionA scandal waiting to happen
A case almost unknown to the British public raises profound questions of justice in the UK.
OpinionPost-Mazur, we should think big
Welcoming CILEX members into the solicitors’ profession would resolve two problems that confront us.
OpinionECHR: 'Mamma Mia, here we go again'
Arguments about leaving the European Convention on Human Rights have become the focus of political attention once more.
OpinionHolding back the AI waves
Protests are being staged outside offices in San Francisco and London, asking tech companies to stop their race to develop ever more powerful AI.
OpinionClient money in a mess
Public policy is all over the place, with different public authorities moving in different directions.
OpinionLegal sunshine in the gloom
Some things are going right, at least for a section of the UK legal profession and for the UK overall.