Weekend video: 'Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan in The Trip'

Save money by making your own cards

I'm always sending people cards be they thank yous, bookplates or celebrations. If you're like me and want to save some cash then an easy way is simply to get an A4 piece of card, fold it in half and stick a photo on it. If that's up your street, then the following links might help.
Card x 100 @ £10.93
Envelopes x 100 @ £6.2   
Glue @ 1.75
Envelopes x 100 £6.27  
Photos x 100 @ £14.99 (though there is a special offer for new users giving 60 free prints)
Total: £33.94 for 100 cards or under 34p per A5 card (before special offers)

My new series of humourous legal posts

Heads-up for the first in a new series of humourous legal posts that I have started writing for a firm of solicitors. You can read it here.

This post is brought to you by my friends at Bartletts Solicitors.

Rob Casserley, Kenton Cool, Becky Bellworthy and Matthew Dieumegard-Thornton on Everest

Many congratulations to British climber and my good friend Dr Rob Casserley who has just summited Everest for an incredible eighth time. He was guiding, among others, Becky Bellworthy, aged 20, who became the youngest British female to summit Everest and Matthew Dieumegard-Thornton, aged 22 who also successfully reached the top of the world. Currently en route (having reached camp 4) is Kenton Cool who is aiming to summit for the tenth time. He will also be fulfilling an epic Olympic pledge by caryying an Olympic gold medial which belonged to Arthur Wakefield who was part of the 1922 Everest expedition who were awarded the medals in the 1924 Olympics. You can read more about the pledge here. Please tweet your support for @KentonCool. The picture, above, was taken by me just below Kala Patar in 2010 on a trip to Base Camp with Rob. As an aside, Arthur Wakefield went to Sedbergh School in the Yorkshire Dales where I shall be giving the prize-giving speech a week on Saturday.

Book recommendation: 'The Legacy of Hartlepool Hall' by Paul Torday

"It's a novel that should enhance his reputation for excellent, ingenious writing" -- Tina Jackson, Metro

"More intriguing is the skein of darkness that, in common with much of Torday's fiction, runs discretely through the story - one sequence is sufficently macabre as to recall the work of a young McEwan." -- Jonathan Barnes Literary Review

"This is a novel about decay and destruction, but bracingly unsentimental and surprisingly moving." -- Kate Saunders, The Guardian

"A gloriously enjoyable wallow of a read." -- John Harding, Daily Mail

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Weekend video: 'The Barristers'

Sponsored post: Are law firms coming up smelling of roses?

Is consolidation under a single brand the way forward for small law firms? It worked for florists with Interflora, why not the local solicitors practice? For some firms it’ll work, but I can’t help feel sorry for are those seemingly eager to discard their history and identity because they can’t see an alternative. I found it quite disconcerting when a firm local to me - “X and Co. est. 1800 and something” - cast aside the brand they had sustained for many years and rebranded entirely under one of the popular schemes.

Will it make members of the public more likely to use them next time they come to sell their house, need a will or divorce? Possibly - and giving people greater access to legal services is a good thing. But these schemes live and die by their brand positioning which is exactly what these firms have given up. So will this ‘Interflora’ method succeed? The problem is lawyers and florists are different. The level of trust and security needed when deciding who will be your florist and who will be your solicitor is slightly different! One brand currently on a big marketing push has had a few goes creating an identity the general public can trust. It’s their second or third bite of the cherry now and I’m not sure how many more attempts they are going to be given.

Steven Astley is a Senior Associate at Colemans-ctts Solicitors, working in the personal injury department. 

Talk at Pickwell Manor, North Devon on Transition Towns by Rob Hopkins and Frances Northup

Heads up for a talk by Rob Hopkins, Founder of the Transition Movement, and Frances Northrup of Transition Town Totnes. Transition Towns have been founded on the basis that our current lifestyle depends on us using a level of resources, such as oil, at a pace which is completely unsustainable for our planet and local environment. Transition Town Totnes is a dynamic, community led response to this challenge that is strengthening the local economy, reducing the cost of living and preparing for a future with less oil and a changing climate. Transition now has over 30 projects up and running in and around Totnes helping to explore and develop ways we can change from our energy-hungry ways of living. It has also sparked a global movement, occupying a surprising limelight as one of the mostwatched  community projects. Transition Towns: Can Totnes change the world? You can hear more about the thinking behind Transition Towns and ask questions of the founders  of it at Pickwell Manor on Thursday 24th May at 8.00pm. A pay bar will be open from 7.30pm. This is an open event, free of charge, but as places are limited the organisers ask that you email info@pickwellmanor.co.uk or phone 01271 890110 to reserve yourself a place and also to say if you'd like to join their mailing list. The talk is organised by an informal collective of local people in Braunton, Georgeham, Croyde and surrounding areas interested in sharing ideas about community and environmental sustainability in the North Devon region.

Book recommendation: 'I Have to Move My Car: Tales of Unpersuasive Advocates and Injudicious Judges' by Lord Pannick

"There are law books about constructive trusts, the Perpetuities and Accumulations Act 1964 and the rule in Foss v Harbottle. This is not one of them. David Pannick QC has always been much more interested in unpersuasive advocates and injudicious judges. In this collection of his fortnightly columns from The Times, David Pannick passes judgement on advocates who tell judges that their closing submissions to the jury will not take long because 'I would like to move my car before 5 o'clock; and he sentences judges who claim to have invisible dwarf friends sitting with them on the Bench, who order the parties to 'stay loose - as a goose', and who signal their rejection of an advocate's argument by flushing a miniature toilet on the bench. In making his submissions, David Pannick QC will entertain and inform you about judges, lawyers, legal entertainment and unusual litigation."

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Person of the Week: Cartoonist Alex Williams

Name: Alex Williams

Occupation: Animator and Queen's Counsel and BabyBarista cartoonist

1. Briefly describe what your job involves.

I draw the weekly cartoon strip "Queen's Counsel" which appears each Thursday in the law pages of The Times. My wife is a solicitor and as my deadline approaches I harrass her for ideas, insisting that it has been weeks since she wrote anything funny for me. She replies that the only funny jokes I do are her ideas, and frankly why don't I do some work for a change? Eventually I draw something, scan it, paint it in Photoshop, and send it to The Times, hoping that this week I don't get fired. I also work on animated movies, breathing life into digital characters, which is a lot of fun. I spent 10 years in Los Angeles stuck in traffic and working for various studios, but nowadays London's Soho is a world-class centre for animation and visual effects work, which is the main reason I moved back home.

2. What do you like about your work?

Working on movies can be huge fun, especially if you have the sense that the picture will be a hit. My first ever film job was on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and I vividly recall the feeling of being on something that was destined to be a sensation - we could just smell it. That kind of certainty is rare, but more recently I worked on the last 3 Harry Potter films which are about as close as you can get to a box office sure-thing. Cartoon strips are a quieter pleasure, but the work is much more personal and in some ways more rewarding.

3. What would be your dream job?

Directing films is about the best job going. I have done a little of it and more would be greatly appreciated. There is nothing quite like watching a movie come together with a team you love to work with. Writing books is fun too but the economics of publishing are profoundly depressing.

4. What are your favourite things beyond work?

Hmm...that's a tough one. I work all the time, but mainly because I love what I do. So I suppose if you do what you love then that becomes your favourite thing. I don't have hobbies as such. I do have a bit of Wikipedia addiction however which brings out my repressed monkish tendencies, writing long biographies of obscure dead people, which no-one reads.

5. What are your favourite books and films?

My favourite books are the ones which have had the most profound influence on my thinking, though not necessarily the best read. In no particular order: The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins - a book that makes you feel brainy just by reading it. God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens - the finest and most clear expression of the case for the non-existence of a deity. Free to Choose by Milton Friedman - Adam Smith for dummies. As for films, I love the old Sergio Leone westerns - A Fistful of Dollars and all the others. Marvellous fun. And pretty much anything by Ridley Scott.

6. What changes would you like to see in the law?

I was a barrister 20 years ago but my legal skills are pretty feeble these days, so I dare not presume any great insight into legal reform. But as a member of the 4th estate I would say we could do a lot for Freedom of Speech if we binned our libel laws, or at least made them less chilling in their effects. I'm an admirer of the US constitution, and the case for free speech seems as unassailable now as it was in the 18th century.

7. What advice would you give to aspiring lawyers?

The best thing I did as a baby barrister was join the Free Representation Unit. Real cases for real clients; proper courtroom experience and the chance to make your mistakes early - and out of sight of your pupil master. And, best of all, a sense of putting your legal training to good practical use. Also, enjoy the Inns of Court dinners. Everyone rolls their eyes at having to dine in hall but the dinners can be huge fun; the booze flows freely and where else do you get to take snuff from a Queen Anne silver snuffbox in the Hogwarts Dining Hall?