Law Society’s Gazette, December 1970

Use of telephone by the professionI fully realise that I am laying myself open for criticism as an old fashioned ‘square’, but do we not, as a profession, and particularly London solicitors, make far too many unnecessary telephone calls? When a busy practitioner is inundated with telephone calls, when does he get any time to do his work of serious thinking and drafting? In my opinion about 20 per cent of the incoming calls in our practice were necessary telephone calls, and the other 80 per cent were unnecessary, and a particularly annoying feature is that if one takes time to remonstrate with the caller who has made an unnecessary telephone interruption, one is looked upon as being unreasonable, and hence this letter which, if it does nothing more, may possibly lessen the number of incoming calls to my particular firm!George M Niblett, Bristol

The Law Society Office Advisory Service writes: A solution to part of Mr Niblett’s problem might be more extensive use of Telex. The method is cheap, yet it encourages brevity. Transmission is rapid for urgent matters, yet work is not interrupted by trivialities.

Long serviceMr John Brownlow Norman, Senior Partner with Larken & Co of Newark-on-Trent, will have completed 80 years with the same firm on 17 December 1970. Mr Norman, who celebrated his 93rd birthday on 14 September last, joined the firm as an office boy on 17 December 1890. He says he was engaged on a temporary basis, which has never actually been confirmed, at a wage of 10s. per week. He was admitted in May 1923 and became a partner of the firm in 1926. For many years Mr Norman was HM Coroner for the Borough of Newark and Clerk to the Justices for the Newark Division. He has now almost given up driving his car and so he walks to the office most days of the week, still putting in several hours a day.

Law Society’s Gazette, 10 December 1980

Solicitors Wine Society Annual BanquetAfter our usual bubbly reception, when old acquaintances were renewed and new ones cemented, dinner was served at an impressive horseshoe table in the Louis Suite (at the Café Royal). Having stipulated a narrow table for ease of conversation, some difficulties were encountered in finding space for all the glasses (5 each!), the candlesticks and the bottles, let alone the food. But I am proud to say that neither a bottle nor a glass hit the floor until it was empty… After the loyal toast, the President (of the Law Society) proposed the toast of ‘The Solicitors Wine Society’ and added a few kind and well chosen words. The chairman made his usual inconsequential review of nothing in particular (there is no point in saying anything momentous – no one remembers the next day) and Mr Hanson (a guest of honour) gave us some valuable pointers on the 1980 vintage in the various wine areas of France. Then, of course, came the ‘wine-swapping’ and the members and guests mingled to criticise and appreciate each other’s treasured wines at the end of a remarkable evening.Geoffrey Phillips