Yesterday, I was taken by the notion that I should acknowledge my 9000th Twitter follower with a blog-post, whoever he or she …or it …may be.

Serendipitous? Risky? ….Well, yes. After all, it may be a nutter or a liberal, a poker or golf freak or indeed a twitterbot. In all probability it would be.

Nevertheless, the die was cast. The rule was set.

I resolved to blog on follower 9000 whoever he, she or it turned out to be. No tricks. No poetic licence.

It was to be a gesture intended as a thankful celebration of the glorious and provoking arbitrariness of the Twitterverse.

The spotlight duly came to rest on @backstopp, of whom more later.

It could have been anybody.

In fact, it very narrowly missed being @GeneHunt of Ashes to Ashes fame  

(…”Now, that would have been one bastard of a blog-post – Eh! Bolly Knickers?”)

It would not have mattered who it was.

This is not to demean my blog guest, @backstopp. Heaven forfend!

It is simply to acknowledge that, in the Twitterverse, there is a law at play that seems to tolerate the most arbitrary of casual connections without impairing its own inexorable and constructive purpose.

It takes a while to realise that this is going on, but I can attest that it is so.

Indeed, if I was to be deliberately provocative I would say it really doesn’t matter what you tweet about, or with whom, you will soon be left ‘bouche be(acute)e’ by the network of coincidences and connections that will arise and be offered to you as if by some unseen hand. You cannot avoid them. That is why I am equally happy to engage in mad twitter burlesque or host virtual Twitter parties as I am to discuss serious matters legal. I have recognised that there is a law of synchronicity at play….and it is playful, but I believe the Universe as a whole is essentially playful so that does not surprise me much.

And before I am inundated by a deluge of  ’Law of Attraction’ tweets from the States, I would point out that it was Carl Gustav Jung who, in 1920, first coined the term ’synchronicity’ to explain the frequent occurrences of ‘meaningful coincidence’ that he attributed to ‘an acausal connecting principle’.

Jung would have loved Twitter. 

He tells the story of a woman who was recounting to him her dream involving a golden scarab when there was a repeated tapping on his study window that turned out to be a large and very rare scarab beetle that was clearly intent on entering the room. Spooky.

Then there is the case of the French Romantic, Emile Deschamps, who claimed in his memoirs in 1805 that he was once treated to some plum pudding by a stranger, one Monsieur Fontibu. A decade later, Deschamps ordered the plum pudding in a Parisienne restaurant to be told that the last portion had just been served to another customer who turned out to be the same M. Fontgibu. Many years later, Deschamps was served plum pudding and related the previous coincidence, adding that all that was needed now was for Monsieur Fontgibu to appear. At that moment, the elderly Fontgibu entered the room.

This kind of thing happens all the time on Twitter, of course.

It is a truly synchronous playground where, so often, so tirelessly and so appropriately, amazing and potent coincidences are conjured up by the creative principle, seemingly out of the very primeval twitter-froth itself. 

You can go hunting for these connections. The point is that you do not need to. Jump into the twitterstream; let go; have faith and see where it takes you. That is all.

So what of @backstopp?

Well, they have a stupendous technology that every company or organisation whose staff use lap-tops and other mobile data devices should definitely know about. Did you know that over 10,000 lap-tops are left in London taxis every year? If that happened to you, all of your personal data, passcodes, files would suddenly be out there for anyone to exploit. Backstopp by Virtuity enables organisations and individuals to perform a remote deletion of data files on any lost or stolen PC, Laptop, PDA or Mobile phone utilising either the GSM (mobile) network, Internet or RFID. As soon as you realise your device is lost or stolen simply login to the BackStopp web console to securely delete all data on the device using US Department of Defence standards. Once your data is secured a detailed report will show what data was destroyed, the device’s last known location and even a photo of the culprit.
 
How good is that!

The coincidence is that I was talking about this very technology just a short while back with another good twitter friend of mine Mike Briercliffe ( @mikejulietbravo).

Well, I say it is a coincidence…but on Twitter there is really no such thing.

Anyone fancy a party?

Welcome to the Blawg Review #243 from a sunny, snow-covered London.

Fighting Back: A Festive Meditation for Lawyers

The Physical Unverse tends towards chaos and dissolution …the Moral Universe towards injustice and despair ….the Legal Universe, for surely such a dimension does exist, towards obfuscation, misdirection and delay.

But there is a contrary principle.

…the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehends it not.

So let us declare this contrary principle that it may burn ever brighter and more unquenchable in the minds and hearts of all who practise the Law. 

Let us, as lawyers, on the eve of the proximate festivities, at the threshold of another year, and as the destructive tide of the 2009 Recession begins to turn, celebrate and magnify all those amongst our number who, in the practice and profession of The Law,  ….FIGHT BACK! 

For should not the steely and dogged courage and determination to fight back, often in the face of overwhelming odds, often in total default of resource and often when the very capacity to fight has itself been exhausted, be the distinguishing hallmark of our profession?

The case is bad. The facts are poor. The evidence is not there. It seems a forlorn endeavour. It seems a hopeless cause.

No matter. We will fight. We will fight back. We are fighters to the core. We have no choice. We must oppose to overcome. We will keep alive the intermittment spark of hope. Whatever the cost. However long and hard the fight may be.

As @London_Law_Firm, I am known to figure the epigrammatic inspiration of Winston Churchill in my sporadic tweetings. I make no apology for this.

That I am a Scholar of Churchill College, Cambridge University, is irrelevant. That I live a few minutes drive from the Churchill family retreat at Chartwell in Kent is purely incidental.

I would tweet Churchill anyway …because he fought back. Big Time.

He fought back when all hope was already extinct; when the British Parliament had already been bombed to rubble; when defeat and death had already taken up residence in men’s hearts; when there was no rational basis upon which the fight should continue.

When he was an old man ….still he fought back.

The legal blogosphere fairly rings with fighting spirit this week.

Ilya Shapiro, illustrious and ambitious champion of Individual Liberty, Free Markets and Peace, fights back this week against the constitutional dangers of vague laws arguing nobly and persuasively in the context of a Supreme Court review of ‘honest services fraud’ charges against Enron CEO, Jeffrey Skilling, that due process requirements of fair warning and definiteness apply equally in the contexts of white collar business crimes, business torts, and civil regulations. Tim Lynch also takes up the legal cudgels against the dangerous trend of overcriminalization in US federal law. Keep fighting, brothers.

John A Flood fights back characteristically with humour against the fact that all UK lawyers will soon be required by the Legal Services Act 2007 to be Superman (”Here’s my card, sweetie. I also happen to do a bit of lawyering on the side”). Now, in very truth, all UK lawyers must fight like super-heroes as the UK market for legal services undergoes virtually total deregulation. We say, ‘Bring it on’!

For another great example of a lawyer who is fighting back heroically against the devastating forces of natural disaster and political conflict, look no further than my twitterfriend, Thomas P Valenti, Member of the Board of Mediators Beyond Borders, fighting back undaunted against the consequences of Hurricane Katrina, Climate Change and the political tensions in the Middle East. Thomas it is a privilege to know you.

Brian Inkster is another lawyer who is fighting back, in true Churchillian spirit, this time against homelessness in Argentina….and not just by raising a phenomenal amount of money for the Habitat For Humanity cause. He actually carved time out from his busy and successful law practice in Scotland to go to Argentina himself and get building with his own bare hands, complete with hard hat and impressive boots that he broke in by wearing them to the office before he went. You can read the whole story of the fight from the links on yesterday’s Argentina compendium blog-post. To The Noble Inkster (aka ‘Lord of the Dance’), we say …..

…keep on dancing, brother!

No legal blog on the subject of ‘fighting back’ could hope to be complete without inclusion of the UK Legal Blogmeister himself, CharonQC who copiously and continuosly wrestles with all manner of subjects, some of whom are known to be perfectly law-abiding citizens. Most recently, he continues his trenchant commentary on ‘Trafigura‘ who have, ironically, extracted £25,000 from the BBC, for apparently straying wide of the mark on the subject of causation, a topic generally best left to lawyers. His most excellent podcast on Trafigura filled an otherwise futile 20 minute wait at the Bluewater checkouts recently whilst my eldest son attempted the purchase of exactly the right  kind of hot water bottle. 

Charon has recently taken up the fight against the pretentiousness of the contemporary art scene…a battle from which he has alreay emerged the victor with his revolutionary new concept, F**Kart ……Another Rioja? ….A la tienne!

‘Snow White Snorts Snow’ – Charondigliani

From the sublime to the subject of re-insurance and a particularly interesting blog by Philip J Loree Jr of Loree & Loree who is fighting back to ensure that the limits of arbitral power are kept within proper bounds. Fight on, brother.

Fighting back with both tactics and strategy is that mighty martial foe and quick-witted twitterer The Trial Warrior whose highlighting this week of some state-of-the-art (of War) thinking on forum and jurisdictional issues typifies his declared belief that: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” (Sun Tzu). Antonin I Pribetic has turned ‘fighting back’ into a noble art form of which he himself is a supreme embodiment. Fight on, oh quick-witted One!

The Efficiency Coach fights back this week against poor delegation skills in law firms . Quite right, Heather. Quite right! Fight on!

Fighting back is a mind-set whether you are One Minute Lawyer fighting back against the routine shackling of young offenders, Criminal Defense Lawyer fighting the 14,000 illegal US consumer scams or Lemon Law Court fighting against, well ….lemons.

Maternal generosity does not normally provoke a major legal battle unless, of course, the mother is, Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L’Oreal fortune and one of the richest woman in the world and the generosity involves gifts totalling over a billion dollars. Andrew Mayoras in The Probate Lawyer Blog records the permission granted to Bettencourt’s daughter by a French Court to press criminal charges against the recipient of such lavish generosity and also to subject her mother to a medical examination on the assumption, presumably, that she must be deranged. It will be interesting to see how effectively the donor fights back in defence of her generosity. Nowhere is the ability to get up and fight back more necessary than in the growing field of UK contested probate work.

Illinois law firm, Levin & Perconti record the legal fight of Linda Kaiser that resulted in the product recall of 50 million roller blinds and window shades after the tragic death by strangulation of her baby daughter in 2002. She thought it was just an accident until she discovered many similar tragedies. She could not but fight back and she did.

The recent fight back in Brent, North London by a Jewish family against the attempt by the Jewish Free School  to exclude their 12 year old son on the grounds that his mother had converted to the Jewish faith at a ceremony conducted at a progressive synagogue is highlighted by Law Less Ordinary along with the Supreme Court’s exhortation that all UK faith schools must now operate strictly non-discriminatory policies.

Some fights are eternal.This week @Clarinette02 fights back against Google’s apparently increasing disregard for the principle of personal privacy. With tenacity and gentle irony, she debunks the arrogance of the “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” argument. We don’t have doors and curtains to preserve our shame, but to retain some vestige of privacy. Google’s pre-eminent position as garnerer of our virtual lives is ever open to hackers, over-zealous government investigators and simple accident whatever the policy of Google may be…and that policy seems to remain frighteningly ambiguous. (..Have you found this blog yet, Googlebot?). Fight on, Tara, fight on!

This week, The AM LAW Daily fights back against a seasonal menace. A flying champagne cork travels at 60 mph. Tipsy lawyers are unlikely to blink in time. Here you will find advice about how to defeat Seasonal Champagne Cork Blues.

Neil Worral, guest blogging this week on The Barrister Blog fights back against the ‘conkers-in-goggles’ ‘elf ‘n safety gorn mad brigade. On balance, he says, over-regulation in the filed of health and safety is not prevalent.

Jonathan Mitchell QC fights back against holiday boredom with a 12 question legal quizz (Question 12: Which court sustained the refusal of a bank to replace a banknote allegedly eaten by the claimant’s cat?). There is a bottle of claret in it for the winner but wrap up warm ….because it is snowing on this site.

@ABeautifulMind1 is not just a beautiful mind. Although not yet sporting a blog (it will be a good read when she does!), she deserves a very special mention as a lawyer who has been fighting back in difficult circumstances and with admirable tenacity against a major UK bank. The bank will lose, of course. Her tenacity has recently yielded good news indeed. Follow her and learn.

Stephanie West Allen (Idealawg) is fighting back this week against the lack of creativity amongst lawyers. For reasons that we must presume are purely professional, she wants us all to dress up as fire-fighters. Result! Now our clients will be able to swoon when they first meet us and not wait until they get the bill. The idea is clearly catching on in London where I have just today seen a fire engine being driven by a team of perruqu’d barristers who are obviously celebrating creatively at the news that they can now be marked up and charged out at a profit and even take their own court bookings online.

Rees Morrison fights back this week against too much information-gathering and not enough intuitive thinking in law departments. This must be right, I feel.

Sam Hasler fights back against the incipient danger of The Stray Text Message.

China Law Blog fights back against ineffective food safety regulations in China in spite of a new Food Safety Commission and Richard Goldfarb on Food Liability Blog fights back against ‘bagel-related injuries’ and, the more prevalent, ‘chicken-related injuries’.

So should we celebrate all lawyers who fight back, in matters great and small, personal and professional. It is an art. We should cherish it.

We live in a strange Universe where lawyers can fight and beat dentists, funeral directors and, surprisingly, catwalk models.

Lawyers are marginal victors over a wet Sunday in London but in the perennial fight between lawyers and a night in with a good book, the solitary night in with a good book wins the contest convincingly.

We should not be too upset about this.

In a world defined by conflict and struggle, we must choose our battles well.

May God bless and sustain all those who fight back, on every level, and in every walk of life, against confusion, evil, injustice, lack, stupidity, oppression and the arbitrary exercise of power and let us, as 2009 draws to a close, recognise and celebrate our own role in that struggle.

Lawyers who fight back will triumph over oppression and injustice. Let us be in no doubt about this.

May I take this opportunity to wish you a peaceful and joy-filled winter respite and a prosperous and sucessful 2010.

Thank you for allowing me to host this Blawg Review.

Blawgreview has information about next week’s host and instructions how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.

Author: Chris Sherliker

The High Court in London willingly concludes that UK legal proceedings can validly be served….by Tweet!

Already dubbed the Blaney Blarney Order, a UK Court held yesterday that an injunction restraining a Twitter imposter posing as an established Twitter blogger and right-wing political commentator could be served on the impostor using Twitter. Seasoned Tweeters like @London_Law_Firm will just shrug and say “So? …Why not! Perfectly sensible”.

After all, legal proceedings may be served by email and by fax.

It is amusing that a social web medium with such an inconsequential name as ‘Twitter’ should so quickly become a recognised part of the social and legal fabric of society and enshirined as such By Order of the Court!

If you do ever get served with legal proceedings by Tweet …just think what fun you will be able to have by RT’ing them and inviting comment and support on the Twitterfeed….and will such publicity and public comment prejudice any future hearing in the matter?

Web 2.0 has not quite got its head around the ’sub judice’ rule, its seems.

Was the possibility of ‘Trial by Tweet’ actually considered in this case?

We feel another legal Twecedent is begging to be set!

Well?  What is one to think?

“Pitcher’s, Pimms, Passing Off…” –  sounds like a hopscotch chant!

Sainsbury’s takes on major supplier Diageo with what might be considered to be a knock-off copy of its iconic Pimms’ brand and at the height of the thirsty Britsh summer. Same bottle shape, same label silhouette, same label lay-out same ’san serif’ font, same colour….same ‘get-up’?

Archbishop Passing Off is already robing up behind the drinks counter to enter the unholy fray with his ‘holy trinity’ of Reputation, Confusion and Damage but who will survive the refining fire of this test?

Is Sainsbury’s passing off its Pitcher’s product as that of Diageo? Is there a trade mark infringement?

Surely, no problem with Reputation. Pimm’s has established itself globally as an iconic brand, synonymous with Wimbledon, Henley, May Balls, picnics (see Twitter #VTPP) and all that is sacred about the British Summer.

And, surely, no issue with Damage. One can almost see the out-stretched hand of the thirsty British consumer waivering and submitting momentarily to curiousity and the lower price tag of the Sainsbury’s ‘equivalent’ with huge consequential loss for Diageo.

So the legal armies must face each other on the uncertain legal battle-field of Confusion. But is there really any Confusion? The name is similar and the

Same difference?

The Sainsbury’s product clearly echoes (deafeningly!) the Pimm’s brand ..but we are not talking puffins and penguins here. The product is pretty obviously not the original although it is clearly trading off its reputation.

It is to be hoped that the tort of passing off is sufficiently flexible to achieve the only just result.

The ‘Jif Lemon’ case historically established that an iconic ‘get-up’ will be protected in passing off. Misrepresentation can be imputed by similarity regardless of difference. The likelihood of some confusion is surely enough.

So what do you think?

Pitcher’s or Pimm’s …Who will take Match Point?

I recently had the pleasure of being a guest of www.22tweets.com,  an online Twitter Interview that tweets you 22 questions that you tweet back answers to.

We are @London_Law_Firm on Twitter. 

As a huge fan of Twitter, I absolutely loved this innovative use of Twitter, and found the succinctness of the 140 character limitation remarkably refreshing, if somewhat challenging!

Chris Sherliker’s Twitterview in Full…..

@London_Law_Firm thank you for joining us today on Twitter. Tell us: who is @London_Law_Firm?
Hi, Lance! I am the ‘voice’ of our firm on T. Lawyer, Husband, Father, Web Marketer, Dog Owner, Fisherman, Artist. Renaissance Man!

Tell us about your law practice.
Silverman Sherliker is a full-service law firm in the City of London. Founded 1980.Now 30 lawyers strong and growing fast.

Congrats on nearly 30 years of success. What type of clients do you represent?
Our client base is very diverse.Many US and EU clients.A huge range of SME’s.We have all kinds of clients all over the globe

What is the single most important legal issue affecting those clients?
Diverse issues!The world is changing fast affecting clients in different ways.The need for effective legal services endures

Indeed. What do you tell every new client before you start working for them?
“What are you trying to achieve?” – Until you know the answer to that one you cannot hope to give an effective service.

Tell us about one of the more significant client representations you’ve had.
We broke the UK Opticians Cartel for US client, changing UK law on eye prescriptions opening up a new multi-million $ market.

That *is* significant…. Why do your clients hire you?
We are a down-to-earth, no-nonsense, entrepreneurial firm. WYSIWYG. No pomposity. No surprises.(Well…only good ones!)

Good surprises = the best kind. What’s the most active area of your practice at the current time? Is that typical?
Very busy in IP-Just been accepted for Chambers Directory for IP work(hooray!) also litigation, labo(u)r and family law

Your firm also provides services in Mallorca as Mallorca UK Legal. How does it differ from Silverman Sherliker?
Mallorca UK is srvce fr expats who move to the Balearics but still have assets in the UK needing mngemt- its a service brand

How will the reforms of the Legal Services Act affect your practice and firm?
The LSA = deregulation and intense competition in the UK legal market.Big & ‘High St’ firms will suffer bt gd 4 niche firms

From this side of the world the changes appear revolutionary. How do you market your practice?
Politically motivated! Best ad is a happy client! Also client seminars, e-wire newsletters, speaking engagements, networking..prayer

How does Twitter fit into the traditional BD / mktg you’ve done since you founded your firm nearly 30 years ago?
We were 1st UK law firm to do TV marketing (horror We are No 1 London firm to TWEET. It pays to be first and its huge fun…..(these lights are killing me…my face needs powder…also a drink would be nice..Oh! how kind

Perhaps we’ll see those TV adverts on YouTube one day…? Besides Twitter, what other Web 2.0 tools do you use?
LOL Hope not! We hve a rolling website dev program. We hve about 12 micro-sites now ..3 more in development..also a new blog

Interesting. What specific impact on referrals and/or client engagements have you realized from Web 2.0 activities?
Web is the single biggest source of new clients and new work. No question. The web referral model is also growing fast in UK

Nice validation of your efforts. How much time do you spend each day developing / enhancing your brand?
I spend 110% (or more) of my time enhancing the business( hot under these lights, isn’t it? Hi Mom! … Hi Dad! . )

Let’s switch gears: what is the most significant issue currently facing the legal profession?
The Legal Services Act will kill off 50% of trad UK law firms. Significant enough? Many ‘000’s of new niche firms will arise instead

So what will the legal landscape look like in 10 years, then?
Total sea chng in the next 2 yrs.Institutions will tk much of market from trad law firms.Niche firms and brands will be born
(…any chance of a drink …its 9.25pm here..)

We’ll have you out of here and on your way soon….
…no problem….I enjoy a good game of tennis!

Sounds like significant opportunities for many…. How do you want to be remembered?
He was a brilliant lawyer and a good guy ..and he could mix a really mean Vesper Martini #twepitaph (I invented this, BTW)

More cutting-edge stuff on 22 Tweets…. What would you do if you weren’t a lawyer?
I wld write, fish, TWEET, spend more time with Mrs London_Law_Firm. Maybe a real estate developer or travel writer or both.

That reminds me – still waiting on that report from the Dordogne… What do you do when you’re not working?
You will *not* believe that Report! I spend time with my wife, family and my dogs. I fish. I paint in oils and watercolors. I tweet.

What advice can you pass along to lawyers currently under- or unemployed due to the economic crisis?
Recgnse the legal world has chngd forever. Its not you. Its progress.Find the need. Meet it. Become a referrer of legal work

That’s a positive message. What advice do you have for people going to law school today?
Learn web marketing skills. Do your own thing. Do something different.Take joy in service. Love your clients, (even the mad ones!)

22tweets.com