The US legal blogosphere was lit up yesterday by a brilliant leaked response to a cease and desist letter. It left the lawyer behind the original missive mired in public shame amid suggestions that he may be both "ham-fisted" and a "meanie"...
Author Archives: Alex Aldridge
Judicial ‘Pepsi Challenge’ fails as law students are unable to identify judges’ gender from their anonymised rulings
Durham University law students' attempt to tell the gender of a judge on the basis of their judgment alone has yielded a success rate of just 46%.
The experiment — a legal version, if you will, of the famous Pepsi Challenge (a blind Pepsi v Coke taste test) — was conducted following prompting by Supreme Court President Lord Neuberger amid controversy at the lack of female judges...
Law students among the most mentally stable of undergraduates at top uni
A survey of Cambridge University undergraduates' mental health has, comfortingly for the future of the legal profession, found law students to be in relatively fine psychological shape. Aside from engineers, law students experience the least depression of any undergraduate at the elite institution, with lawyers of the future also suffering lower than average incidences of eating disorders and insomnia. Students of English, history, philosophy and anthropology are the most troubled...
The terrifying personality cult of Bernadette Kearns
Meet Bernadette Kearns, the great leader of Wigan law firm Bernadette Kearns Property Lawyers. The firm's website features an incredible 42 different themed images of her. Some depict the worlds of sport, the professions and leisure, while others explore Kearns' relationship with more abstract concepts such as love, faith and time...
Alternative careers for UK law graduates: President of Iran
The was encouragement for students at non-traditional universities over the weekend with the news that Glasgow Caledonian University law graduate Hassan Rouhani has been elected President of Iran...
Are bare elbows too risque for court?
A US judge has issued a memo urging women lawyers to dress to the same formal standards as men, with even bare elbows deemed inappropriate. The missive, which recalls Allen & Overy's famous plea to its female trainees to stop "looking like we're going clubbing", was prompted by Tennessee Circuit Judge Royce Taylor's horror at the sleeveless dresses and low-cut tops worn by the female lawyers who appeared before him...
Bristol Uni law student who swore at police avoids criminal record after representing himself in court
In this difficult moment for wannabe lawyers, where work experience is so scarce that a week-long placement can sell for thousands of pounds, it pays to operate unconventionally — as first year Bristol University law student Wyatt Coneely has unwittingly discovered...
