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Archive for September, 2010

Experts

I was telling Claire about the terrible performance of my consultant neurologist in a case I did yesterday. She replied, ‘My pupilmistress used to say that you should never trust experts. As she put it, the ‘x’ stands for the unknown factor and the ‘spurt’ is simply a drip under pressure.’ Then she smiled and [...]

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September 30, 2010 · babybarista · No Comments
Tags: Article, BabyBarista, Blogposts, Law, The BabyBarista blog Â· Posted in: Uncategorized

‘Law and Disorder’ reviewed in The Solicitors Journal

Great review of Law and Disorder in The Solicitors Journal by Martha Swann. You can read it here or see below. See also Martha’s excellent blog and The Solicitors Journal’s Young Lawyer edited by Ailsa Dixon. Law and Disorder – Confessions of a Pupil 26 September 2010 Tim Kevan Bloomsbury When I landed my training contract I was so enthused [...]

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September 30, 2010 · babybarista · No Comments
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Monday morning with Alex Williams’ cartoons, 27th September 2010

This cartoon is by Alex Williams who draws the Queen’s Counsel cartoons for The Times and in numerous books including Lawyers Uncovered. He also does the cartoons for BabyBarista and has had two more excellent books published recently: 101 Ways to Leave the Law and 101 Uses for a Useless Banker. He offers almost all of [...]

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September 27, 2010 · babybarista · No Comments
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Weekend video: Orson Welles as Clarence Darrow in Compulsion

Hat tip Marcel Berlins in The Guardian Share this article:

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September 25, 2010 · babybarista · No Comments
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Has The Times’ paywall started leaking?

Having blogged for The Times for three years, I resigned several months ago due to their introduction of a paywall. My reason was simple: fewer people would now be able to view my blog. I concluded that ‘inside the paywall no-one can hear you scream’. Given that Rupert Murdoch apparently sees the iPad as the saviour [...]

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September 21, 2010 · babybarista · No Comments
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Monday morning with Alex Williams’ cartoons

This cartoon is by Alex Williams who draws the Queen’s Counsel cartoons for The Times and in numerous books including Lawyers Uncovered. He also does the cartoons for BabyBarista and has had two more excellent books published recently: 101 Ways to Leave the Law and 101 Uses for a Useless Banker. He offers almost all of [...]

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September 20, 2010 · babybarista · No Comments
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Weekend video: Brian Johnson’s giggling fit

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September 18, 2010 · babybarista · No Comments
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Who’s who in BabyBarista

For those of you who are new to this blog, here is a run-down of the main characters who crop up from time to time. Barristers BabyBarista. A young Flashman meets Rumpole meets Francis Urquart for the 21st century TopFirst. BabyB’s sworn enemy and former fellow pupil OldSmoothie. Think Peter Bowles in To The Manor [...]

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September 15, 2010 · babybarista · One Comment
Tags: Article, BabyBarista, Blogposts, Law, The BabyBarista blog Â· Posted in: Uncategorized

Apple sauce and Blackberry whine

‘Oh no, she’s off doing her Blackberry whine again,’ said OldSmoothie at court today as he pointed over to UpTights who was looking exasperated as she talked into her Blackberry mobile phone. ‘And I suppose that that means TheVamp over there is doing an Apple sauce,’ said SlipperySlope smiling as we all looked over to [...]

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September 13, 2010 · babybarista · No Comments
Tags: Article, BabyBarista, Blogposts, Law, The BabyBarista blog Â· Posted in: Uncategorized

Monday morning with Alex Williams’ cartoons

This cartoon is by Alex Williams who draws the Queen’s Counsel cartoons for The Times and in numerous books including Lawyers Uncovered. He also does the cartoons for BabyBarista and has had two more excellent books published recently: 101 Ways to Leave the Law and 101 Uses for a Useless Banker. He offers almost all of [...]

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September 13, 2010 · babybarista · No Comments
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• Law and Peace

  
• Law and Peace is the second novel in The BabyBarista Files and was published in 2011. It is the sequel to Law and Disorder which was described by broadcaster Jeremy Vine as "a wonderful, racing read - well-drawn, smartly plotted and laugh out loud" and by The Times as "a cross between The Talented Mr Ripley, Rumpole and Bridget Jones’s Diary". The books are based upon this blog which appeared on The Times for three years and now appears on The Guardian and which was described by The Lawyer as "genius". The books are available on amazon. You can also listen to 'Law and Disorder' read by Tim Kevan at www.audible.co.uk.

• THE MAIN CHARACTERS

• PanicStricken

  
  

  A new character who's desperate for a training contract but has just been demoted from minimum wage legal assistant to unpaid intern
• 

• OldSmoothie

  
• Think Peter Bowles in To The Manor Born and Milk Tray Man, but not quite. Once successful barrister now put out to graze as a committee man.
• 
  Follow BabyBarista's adventures with the ICLR

• TheCreep

  
• Jumped up little twerp who sucks up to the big beasts in chambers and struts around as if he's really something when actually he's not.

• SlipperySlope

  
  

  Solicitor skilled in the art of creative billing. Has the airs and graces of a country squire but is more a cross between Arthur Daley and Boycie from 'Only Fools and Horses'.

• Smutton

  
  

  Brassy to UpTights’s classy and yet still, somehow, sexy.

• NurserySlope

  
  

  Solicitor who is SlipperySlope's neice. Skis, rides and looks like a horse.

• JetSet

  
  

  A new solicitor character who's got a training contract and lords it over PanicStricken. She's wealthy, well- connected and spends most weekends either skiing or clubbing abroad.

• ScandalMonger

  
• Ruthless PR guru who has become one of BabyB's secret litigation weapons
• 
  

• BigMouth

  
• Pompous Tory MP stuck on the backbenches like a piece of old chewing gum
• 

• BusyBody

  
• A whirlwind of interference with a good heart and always up for a fight, particularly with OldSmoothie.

• TopFirst

  
• BabyB’s sworn enemy and former fellow pupil

• BabyBarista

  
• A young Flashman meets Rumpole meets Francis Urquart for the 21st century

• OldFatherTime

  
• A whisper on the wind, Highlander-type figure who is older than time itself

• TheVamp

  
• Tenant in chambers and a walking Carry On film of an innuendo

• OldRuin

  
• How a barrister should be. Dumbledore meets Clarence, the angel in Its a Wonderful Life. BabyB’s redemption.

• TheBusker

  
• Barrister of ten years call with the integrity and decency of OldRuin. Very laid back in his approach to both court and life. Admired by BabyB.

• TheBoss

  
• BabyB’s ex-pupilmaster. Unscrupulous, spineless coward.

• HeadClerk

  
• The real power in chambers. All seeing, all knowing.

• PupilFodder

  
• Learner Barrister foisted upon his unsuspecting client who gets shredded in court

• UpTights

  
• BabyB’s pupilmistress for his second six months who was almost called BoTucks for the work she’s had done. Insists on boundaries and personal space. Has ‘issues’.

• JudgeJewellery

  
• Judge with penchant for stealing high street trinkets