Author: wilks

I called myself wilks when I first started blogging. The idea was that it would afford a measure of anonymity. For much the same reason, there was no photo. Times change, hence the photo, but I decided that even when I changed the blog’s title at the start of 2009, I should remain wilks.

No more gunboats

China’s decision to press ahead and execute Akmal Shaikh is repellant : for once Gordon Brown speaks for us all when he says, “I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted”.

But there are two things that have most forcibly struck me about this case: the impotence of the United Kingdom and its diplomatic effort, and China’s intemperate reaction to criticism.

From the FT.com report this morning

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said in Beijing that no country has the right to comment on China’s judicial sovereignty.  “It is the common wish of people around the world to strike against the crime of drug trafficking. We express our strong dissatisfaction and opposition to the British government’s unreasonable criticism of the case. We urge the British to correct their mistake in order to avoid harming China-UK relations,’’ she said.

There is no mistake; and, whether China likes it or not, any country has the right to comment on China’s judicial sovereignty.

Whether as at Copenhagen, or as in this sad case, it seems that the unspoken excuse of the Chinese leadership for the actions it takes, or more often does not, is its domestic situation. That should not deter us from condemning it.

Happy Christmas

There is something about Christmas mornings. Caroline says the stillness is almost tangible, and so it seemed today. Complete quiet in the house. Outside very cold but no snow; the garden frosted and the bird feeders undisturbed. Lying warm in bed, we can just hear the longcase clock strike seven, two floors below us. Across the road our neighbours’ grandchildren are up, and the house is ablaze with light: what noise there we can only imagine. Our five sleep on, long past the excitement of Santa’s arrival, but stockings on each door nonetheless. Such are the rituals of Christmas in this house.

Another lame excuse

You would have thought, with five children between us, that there is very little any of them might now do or say that would surprise us. By and large this is the case, but #5 (the only boy) is the exception.

He has just finished his first term at Loughborough, mainly, if his Facebook photos are to be believed, spent in the usual manner (this involves liberal amounts of alcohol, body paint and attractive fellow students). This was followed by a week snowboarding in France. Earlier today, with Christmas a scarce three days away, his thoughts turned to buying Christmas presents for his siblings. But who wanted what? He decided to call home.

His conversation with #4 did not go well, as she chided him for failing to get his act together, and order things sooner. He remarked that while in France there had been no internet access. Why hadn’t he sorted things out sooner, she asked. Quite a reasonable question, you would have thought. Apparently he didn’t.

“I have had a very busy term” was his reply. Somewhat ill judged to someone in her final year, struggling to get her dissertation finished, essays in and reading completed. He will learn.

Starting again

Welcome back, though that may not be quite the right phrase, to Lawslot.

Some 12 months ago, struggling to find time to post to both Enough Said and Lawslot, to say nothing of my original blog, Dartmoor Letters, I decided to close Lawslot. I moved its posts to Enough Said: George Wilkinson’s Blog, and determined to concentrate on that blog.

So much for good intentions. There have been two difficulties. First, Enough Said has lost focus. It is something and nothing. It has certainly been a handy escape valve for some of my grumpier thoughts, mainly political, but these sit ill with what I had always intended to be considered posts on law firm strategy and management. If your blog is a window into your world, then reading mine I am clearly the Grinch.

Secondly, I discovered Twitter, and the joy of the Twitterverse: 140 characters, immediate, and the opportunity (still to be taken forward properly) of engagement with others who share my interests and concerns.

So as Twitter took  over, my posts on Enough Said all but stopped. Work is an excuse (of sorts), but not much of one. I was also concerned with the ‘image’ thing. Having decided that I would stop blogging anonymously, I was, and remain, concerned to keep the blog as professional as possible. Ranting about some of my least favourite politicians is good for the blood pressure but, as on of my partners commented, what if clients read my blog?

Then some two months ago I read an excellent post, A Blog is a Better Social Media Hub than Twitter by Joel Postman in Social Media Today. I also revisited two posts I had bookmarked, Doug Cornelius on Why I Blog in Compliance Building, and John Naughton’s What no comments in Memex 1.1, the first blog I ever read and followed. At the time I was preparing my presentation on Client take on for a Risk Management Conference at which I had been asked to speak, and one of the key issues I was thinking about was that asked by Bill Knight in a PLC article some years ago: what do you ‘when your client wants to do something which is legal, but [which] in your view [is] highly questionable’. I posted about this in Professional unease last year.

And I decided, a slightly early New Year’s resolution, that I would revive Lawslot, as Lawslot Redux – but concentrate on legal ethics and the world in which I practice. There is, in many ways, overkill on law firms and social media, and there are a number of brilliant blogs on law firm strategy and management that I read, but with which I could not compete: Bruce MacEwen’s Adam Smith, Esq., Rob Millard’s The Adventure of Strategy, and Jordan Furlong’s Law 21. Certainly there are also blogs on legal ethics, but this is something that I have spent much of my professional career thinking about, and, when asked, speaking about – and it is time to start writing about them. I will continue both Enough Said and Dartmoor Letters (I have some stunning early Winter photos of Dartmoor) but the professional blog will be this one (again).

Where this blog will go I am still not sure: but stick with it and see.