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.

Holding on to optimism

A very good public lecture at the University of Exeter yesterday evening on Building the Energy Future, given by James Smith, Chairman of Shell UK.

Very upbeat (“we need to hold on to our optimism, but realise that optimism alone is not enough”) and honest. And this morning Stefan Stern in the FT on why Managing the mood is crucial,

Leaders have to be resilient. At the moment the bad news is coming not single spies, but in battalions. Tough trading conditions like these test character as much as business acumen. Your physical and emotional response to these challenges is just as important as the decisions you actually take.

If James Smith’s performance last night is typical of the man (and I am sure it is) then Shell UK must be a great place to work.

P.S. Note to Steve Smith (University of Exeter VC) ~ these lectures are too good to miss: there should be a podcast.

More on the future of law

Another thought provoking post by Jordan Furlong in Law 21 on How to solve the legal employment problem. It makes for uneasy reading,

We’ve been bingeing on reports of law firm layoffs for a few months now, and there’s every reason to think those reports will continue through 2009. But we haven’t spent as much time looking at the big picture: there is a growing population of lawyers whose jobs are gone for good, and a larger group of lawyers whose underlying business models are fast becoming obsolete. . .

During the recession, we’re all going to learn to do more with less. Cost-saving efficiency and “good-enough” quality will be the twin standards by which purchases of all kinds will be made, including legal services. Lawyers have never needed to be efficient and they’ve always preferred an exhaustive answer to an adequate one; they’re not going to adjust easily, and some won’t adjust at all. Clients also will need their lawyers to focus more on high-value services that demand advisory skills and judgment, and less on than repetitive tasks that require boxes to be ticked off and i’s to be dotted. That’s going to be more than a business model challenge; that’s a new way for many legal professionals to view themselves and their functions, and again, some simply won’t  have the wherewithal to meet the new expectations.

In particular read the take on the problem for legal education: “churning out lawyers suited for 20th century practice”.

Our Chief of men

A knowledge of history is clearly not an employment requirement for government service in Canada, if the remarks of Alykhan Velshi, Jason Kenney’s spokesman, are anything to go by.  Referring to the decision to ban George Galloway from Canada, Velshi is reported as saying

“We’re going to uphold the law, not give special treatment to this infamous street-corner Cromwell.”

I have some sympathy with the Canadians, as Galloway is a far from likeable character, but a Cromwell?  Hardly.  For the real Cromwell you can do no better than Blair Worden’s summary in The English Civil Wars 1640 – 1660

His later victories, inside and outside England, were still more remarkable [than his exploits at Marston Moor and Naseby]. Through them, but also through willpower and political dexterity, a provincial gentleman-farmer, an obscure figure until his forties, rose to conquer three nations and to awe the courts of Europe.