Law Society’s Gazette, September 1939

[Britain declared war on Germany 70 years ago today. To prevent the Roll of Solicitors and other records being destroyed by enemy action, the Law Society was moved out of London.]

The Society’s offices have been temporarily transferred to 142 Newtown Road, Newbury, Berks [Telephone No: Newbury 682]. The Society’s premises in Chancery Lane will remain open for the use of members so long as circumstances permit and arrangements will be made to continue the catering at all events for the present.

Law Society’s Gazette, September 1959

The Happy Median – Can Lawyers be Human Too? By John Kirk

On coming down from the pink clouds of Law School to the hard earth of the office, the application of the law to the public at large and to himself in particular becomes immediately apparent to the student; it is then that a subtle process begins which… will lead to his final desiccation.

I had the benefit of a first-hand warning about the effect of this when, at the wedding of a fellow student, I met a solicitor aged about 40 and his extremely charming wife. I revealed my intention of becoming a solicitor. "Oh lord, no!" the solicitor’s wife exclaimed, adding: "By the time you are 40 you will be stiff and staid, a slave of logic, suffocated by respectability! Can’t you do anything else?"