hmmm

020 7269 1430

• Communication
• Legal Business
• Real Estate
• Wealth Management

Should lawyers be subject to league tables?

August 19, 2009

Now in its second year, the Times’ list of the 100 Most Powerful Lawyers in the UK makes for enjoyable reading. The usual suspects are there and yet everyone who works in the law, or who has any knowledge of it, can no doubt think of someone who really should have been included.

Which begs the question: what is the methodology behind the list? Exactly how does one adjudge a lawyer’s power or lack of it? One simple way, in the case of litigators, would be to tot up the numbers of cases they have won and then compare them with those of others working first of all in the same area of law and then across the board. Come to think of it, why hasn’t the government thought of this? After all, we have league tables for schools, so why not for lawyers?

Are clients important?

August 18, 2009

Blade enjoys this robust debate on ‘millennials’ – lawyers under the age of 30 who are allegedly so obsessed with their own all-important work/life balance that serving clients is not merely a poor second but actually an unknown concept.

With Tesco law looming, the debate is far from fanciful.

To be suited is to be not booted

August 18, 2009

In the professions, is wearing a suit a must? We suspect it might be. The PR upsides to being suited far outweigh the downsides. Here’s why.

1. Wearing a suit makes you look professional.

Like it or not, someone dressed casually never looks as slick as the person who’s chosen a suit. Good suits can even disguise hangovers.

2. Wearing a suit is safe.

Even if your employer gives you the option of dressing casually, the safe option is, well, the safe option. What’s to go wrong with a dark blue pinstripe? A blazer and chinos, in contrast, can cause mayhem.

3. Wearing a suit is stylish.

Alex Wade, pictured here, had his suit made by Dress2Kill. Doesn’t he look stylish?

4. Wearing a suit provides you with a sense of identity.

The casually dressed are anonymous. They wear their badge of the quotidian with no sense of pride. To embrace the suit is to say: “I am professional.” There is nothing wrong with this. It is a good thing.

5. Wearing a suit does not necessarily mean you have to wear a tie.

Look at Swordplay’s sometime scribe, the stylish Mr Wade. Do you see a tie? Exactly.

6. Wearing a suit says that you’re organised and together.

The suit-wearer commands respect. The king of casual is a judgement waiting to happen.

7. In a recession, wearing a suit can save your job.

Asked to choose between sacking an employee wearing a suit and one who is casually dressed, nine out of ten employers say they’d save the suit-wearer.

Remember: if you’re not going to wear a suit, you’ve got to be very, very, very good at what you do. Only if you’re that confident should you opt for the casual look. Unless, of course, you have a job where no one can see you.

« Previous Page — Next Page »