All articles by Jonathan Goldsmith – Page 31
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News
European collective redress
In a week in which distressing images of Turkish lawyers being dragged by police out of a court building showed the importance of not taking the benefits of the rule of law for granted, here is some of Europe’s more traditional, everyday legal fare to distract you.
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Support our Turkish colleagues
‘The history of lawyers is the history of society in general.’ That’s my theory anyway, and it can be tested by tracing a country’s trends from what is happening to its lawyers. The ethics-lite market fundamentalism visited upon our profession is a mirror of the country’s history during the Thatcher-Blair ...
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Money laundering still dogs us
There is plenty of backstage manoeuvring in the development of legal policy. Often the most interesting work cannot be written about, to protect the confidentiality of our members’ views or our interaction with outside bodies. At the same time, I think: ‘But the wider legal profession should know about this!’
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Surviving international legal encounters
I know that complaining about business travel to glamorous destinations is considered inverted snobbery. I have been in Athens and Zurich these last two weeks, first at a Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) Plenary Session and then at an IBA Bar Leaders Meeting. Why complain, you ...
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OpinionEU withdrawal would be dire for profession
Withdrawal from the EU is staring us in the face. It is a good time to spell out what the consequences might be for lawyers.
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Dealing with corruption in the UK
This week, the Council of the International Bar Association (IBA) will consider Anti-Corruption Guidelines for Bar Associations. I remember when this was discussed in one of the IBA policy groups of which I am a member. The representatives from bars in the west (and from at least one other developed ...
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News
Will ABSs be allowed to cross EU borders?
A report was published by the European Commission this week, keenly awaited by dedicated followers of European legal fashion. It gives important insights into lawyer cross-border mobility in Europe.
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The dilemma of small claims
The struggle over the financial limits for small claims is an issue which is traditionally difficult for lawyer policymakers, because of the apparent conflict between public and private interests. The raising of personal injury claim levels in the UK has caused a fuss, and now the topic has appeared on ...
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News
Model of a modern secretary general
You may wonder what the secretary general of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) does all day. This is a proper question, since solicitors contribute to my pay. So here goes, with all events taken from last week. If you want to see how I am ...
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News
Lawyers are the same – though different – wherever you go
I have travelled a good deal for more than 15 years, either on behalf of the Law Society or for my current employer, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). Since this has been paid either wholly or now in small part by solicitors, it is time ...
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Promoting European legal values abroad
A part of your tax that funds the EU’s budget goes towards the improvement of human rights and the rule of law in countries around the world. This makes sense to me, because a stable world enables us to enjoy those things which governments are supposed to provide: an environment ...
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Mrs Thatcher and me
There hasn’t been much written in the Gazette about the death of Mrs Thatcher. Maybe the other contributors are too young to have lived through her premiership? I was not a fan, and so if you are one of the millions who voted for her and continued to adore her ...
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Catherine, the language warrior
There is a tradition which is stronger on the continent than in the UK, that of the Festschrift or Liber Amicorum. ‘Celebratory book’ is probably the closest in English. For the second time, I have been asked to contribute to one, and it is thoughts about the lawyer in whose ...
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News
Oscars for the best EU legal system
A report has just been published by the European Commission which measures how EU member states are faring comparatively in a number of areas of their legal system. It is part of the continuing drive to use justice as a means of encouraging economic growth in the EU. This is ...
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News
Justice is never reached, only sought
In a week when a new Pope was elected and scientists at Cern in Switzerland grew more certain that the so-called ‘God particle’ or Higgs boson exists, I fell to thinking about the values of our own profession, and where it stands in the spectrum between the two framework terms ...
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Would you earn more in France?
The Law Society’s Research Unit is in the process of publishing multi-part assessments of the legal services market. The reports often confirm what we already know – for instance, that there are two solicitors’ professions, and aren’t the City types doing well, while those poor devils in the small and ...
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Spotlight on the European courts
It’s time to look again at the European courts in Luxembourg. I shall start with the particular, two recent and interesting cases affecting lawyers, and move to the general, the courts’ record in relation to efficiency and the appointment of judges.
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Coping with the global
Solicitors have been one of the beneficiaries and promoters of globalisation in legal services. It is not a success that could reasonably have been predicted back in the 1960s. I suppose that its causes lie in multiple factors, including: the removal of the cap on the number of partners in ...
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Europe versus the internet monsters
Although we are distracted by daily news of crime (for instance, Oscar Pistorius) or sex (Jimmy Savile and others), we all know that there are more important developments changing our world. An example is the way the huge internet barons – Amazon, Google, Facebook – are altering our physical and ...
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Lawyer training – a rising EU profile
Last week, I wrote about how EU funding has helped lawyers, through the creation of a Find-A-Lawyer database (some welcomed the money, others saw it is a waste). I should have called it EU funding - part 1. This week comes part 2, which tells how EU funding is supporting ...