All articles by Jonathan Goldsmith – Page 35
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Lawyers must demonstrate sound judgement in turbulent times
History describes circumstances where moral attitudes change. Slavery was accepted as perfectly normal for centuries, indeed a reflection of an ordered universe; today it is considered abhorrent.
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Living in a time of perilous uncertainty
This is a piece about mood and atmosphere: how it feels to live and work in Brussels at a time of feverish speculation about the European Union’s future. It says something of the stability of the last few decades that it is the first occasion in my life that I ...
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Lawyers’ right to strike
As social ties are stretched to breaking point by the economic crisis, an interesting question arises: do lawyers have the right to strike, and if so in what circumstances? The focus here is not on the legal right granted to citizens, including lawyers, by the law of a particular country, ...
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Pecking at lawyers
Displacement activity takes place when animals or humans are faced with a crisis and don’t know how to react. Apparently, birds peck at grass when uncertain whether to attack or flee from an opponent. So it is with governments, too. Confronted by an unprecedented crisis, they haven’t a clue what ...
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Legal aid now underpinned by international principles
There was a welcome development on legal aid this week, from of all places the United Nations. Legal aid is of course something usually dealt with at national level, and there are wide divergences in national treatment and national expenditure.
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From the wild frontiers, where IT meets law
Here are some reports from the expanding frontier of legal practice. As is often the case with technology, they come from the USA.
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Calls for a global legal profession are fanciful
There has been talk in recent years, at conferences or in committee discussions within international legal organisations, about the need for a global legal profession. Harvard Law School has been the latest to climb on the band-wagon with a mid-April conference on the subject.
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An overview of the EU’s week
I try in this blog to describe weekly European news affecting the legal profession. Although I don’t expect sympathy, it can be a head-scratching challenge, since there are not always weekly developments on tap. Policy-makers receive daily updates of EU news, and I scan the headlines ...
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Money laundering again... and again
In the calm of the Easter break, the European commission has published an important report on anti-money laundering, which could eventually have a significant impact on solicitors’ duties. (When reviewing the topics I have written about in these blogs over nearly three years, money laundering is probably the most frequently ...
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Lawyers and the push for growth
We are entering the third phase of responses to the economic crisis. First, there was the effort to put right through new law or regulation what had gone wrong before - not very strongly or accurately, since banks are still paying bonuses and credit rating agencies still doing whatever they ...
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Three golden rules of regulation
I met representatives of the Legal Services Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority this week. Among many things discussed, I told them the obvious: that the ease of explanation to outsiders of the UK’s regulatory system for the legal profession has not been improved by the Clementi reforms, but made ...
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What do you know about the European Ombudsman?
In a pretty park in the European quarter of Brussels is situated the local base of an institution that should be better known to lawyers, since it can provide recourse to clients. The world may be filling up with ombudsmen, but the granddaddy of them all (in European terms) is ...
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Lessons from Egypt
I have just come back from a short business trip to Cairo. ‘Don’t go! You must be mad!’ I received worried messages while I was there, and was advised not to venture out on my own.
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Peering into the future
We have undertaken a Harry Potter-like task recently at the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), but without the aid of wands or potions: we have tried to predict the future. It is always good to have an idea of what is coming down the line, but ...
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Women in boardrooms: have the zombies won?
European Union justice commissioner Viviane Reding recently surprised herself, and the world, too. She walked up to the microphone, after having rehearsed all morning before her bathroom mirror an announcement to bring in quotas for women in company boardrooms. She had threatened as much a year ago, when she said ...
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Public procurement jumps onto the agenda
Public procurement is not a topic that rates highly when lawyers meet and chat. However, our members have been pressing us to look at the proposed new directive on public procurement, and so we are hurriedly doing so.
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A coming struggle on partnership with foreign lawyers
The International Bar Association (IBA) is currently consulting its member organisations around the world on a resolution which recommends a liberal regime for professional rules on partnership - or what it calls association - between local lawyers and foreign lawyers. This topic is always sensitive, because its promotion can look ...
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Sometimes we need Europe-wide answers
This is a report from the European frontline. I read the same newspapers as you do and see the hysterical coverage about imminent EU collapse. But I also work in a European organisation - the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) - where we have members from ...
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Do reserved activities harm the UK economy?
This week, from the same people who brought you economic ruin, we have more of the same. As I have said before, deregulation and liberalisation - those twin modern marvels which most agree to have been the motors of our current economic crisis - are still fixed in our rulers’ ...
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Lawyers and Leveson – how are they doing?
A history of phone hacking and the current Leveson enquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press through the activities of lawyers alone is intriguing. I am a Leveson addict, and a long-time watcher of lawyers, and so it is a natural combination. I undertook an analysis some ...