Monday, January 22, 2007

Abuse

Last week I received a leaflet from the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association advertising one of it's new training courses. I probably receive one of these leaflets a week and usually I briefly look at the leaflet and throw it away. The only reason for me to actually read the leaflet that I received was because I had been told that I needed some training so I should attend the training course that this particular leaflet was advertising.

I was somewhat amused by the leaflet's description of the individual who was going to be speaking at the training seminar. I have set out below the exact text from the leaflet on the speaker (apart from his identity and the name of the firm he works for):
Mr. Solicitor is a solicitor at Solicitor & Partners and a regular lecturer for the LCCSA. The 2004 Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession described him having a "pedigree which stands out by itself". The 2005 edition as "tremendously bright", the 2006 edition as a "business crime legend" and the 2007 edition as having made a "massive academic contribution due to his involvement on the lecture circuit". Colleagues have described him as a 'complete wanker'.

I am pretty sure that the last sentence was not supposed to be published and circulated to every member of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association!

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

This has brightened my Monday morning. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes the truth outs !!

Anonymous said...

It makes a change to see something so honest.

Anonymous said...

Any chance of a picture of this?

Gavin said...

What kind of picture? Do you mean a copy of the leaflet?

Anonymous said...

Oh please scan and post an imagine of that it's priceless!

Law Student said...

I assume the subject of the leaflet took it in good faith?

Anonymous said...

the funniest thing I've read all week. Cheers.

Law Student said...

Gavin I've placed a link to you on my blog, I do hope that's ok; Diary of a Law Student

Janejill said...

I had not realise till now that a pedigree could actually stand out...perhaps that's related to him being a w..ker -worth hearing him just for that

Unknown said...

Gavin I am so amazed that you have time to write this ! from www.free-legal-advice-clinic.com - yes folks its free but if I get an eqnuiry in this area I'll refer Gavin

Anonymous said...

Where are you?I miss your posts.

Anonymous said...

It's probably a variant on the old newspaper error of 'exiting headline here' that is often temporarily placed at the top of columns but rarely printed due to that being a mistake as the header is meant to be a temporary place-holder. I do occasionally see the for sale columns at the back with a good few inches of 'do not print - training exercise' but less often.

Alexander said...

Gavin,

I have been reading your blogs and I find them very interesting. I run a work connections website and would like to use your blogs on our website. We offer a blogging advantage reward system where you can earn money or other rewards. If you are interested I would arrange syndication of blogs, and once a month overview of visitors generated income,

Thanks,

Kind regards

Leo Cussons

Mobile: 00 44 7624 406750 The Business services site
Tel: 00 44 121 288 9051 www.workconnections.co.uk
Mailto: lcussons@workconnexions.com www.workconnexions.com

Anonymous said...

Had to find out who it was; the picture makes the claim believable...
http://www.corkerbinning.co.uk/David_Corker.htm

(although you might want to remove this as it's definitely defamatory)

James said...

Dear Gavin,

As you may know already I have an interest in blogs about work.

I started to look at such blogs two years, but for reasons I won’t bore you with, prevented me from developing the project beyond a questionnaire exercise.

I am now, finally, at a stage where I can spend enough time researching a phenomenon I find very interesting and expect others to do so when I get around to telling them!

So, why I am telling you this?

Well, I’m looking for some input into a research project that investigates work-related blogs – something that hardly anyone has written about before.

I have no intention of ‘outing’, or indicating in any way, any blogger.

The paper is not about sensationalising blogs.

It’s more to do with exploring the significance of a wider emerging trend of ‘ordinary’ people exploiting the web for any number of reasons.

At this stage I would like to first of all request your permission to use excerpts from your blog for my paper.

If you do allow me to do this I promise to consult with you on what I intend to use and how I intend to use it.

Any other feedback or direction from you would be welcomed.

To be more specific, and based on what several sources have said out such blogs in the past (newspapers, trade journals and academics), I’m looking for blog entries that cover the following themes:

1) Postings that would be viewed by your employer, or any other employer, as some sort of nuisance to them (if this is applicable to you).

2) Postings that you believe could lead to disciplinary action if your employer knew about what you were doing (especially if you post anonymously).

3) Postings that offer an ‘honest’ review of how you are expected to work (e.g. outlining ridiculous practices or expectations from management, etc.).

4) Postings that could be viewed as being news from the workplace or ‘spilling the beans’ on a certain work-related matter that you feel should be in the public domain.

5) Postings that you feel could shape public opinion about what you do or how your job has an impact on others, even if your blog is read by a small number of people.

6) Postings that are about you, whether you intended at the onset to do it or not, revealing aspects of your job that others could learn from, i.e. tricks of the trade or tacit knowledge.

7) Postings that reflect the possibility of loneliness at work, i.e. writing in a manner that indicates you wish you had more support or chance to discuss matters with others at work.

8) Postings that are clearly about trying to get one over on management, i.e. resistance.

Some of these requests may appear similar or vague and it’s unlikely that you will be able to provide examples of all of the above, but any examples of any category will be appreciated.

Like I said I before, posting can (and will be) changed in a manner that protects your or anyone else’s identity.

I should also say while I’m at it that I am looking for bloggers to make a contribution to another project that I intend to get started on very soon.

It would be an edited book (many contributors) that would a) cover research on work-related blogs, b) allow bloggers to tell their story of what blogging about work has done for them.

For bloggers this could mean anything and I mean anything. For example, if blogging has won you an audience and adulation then write about that. If blogging has helped you meet people who have helped you in some way that would be excellent too. If blogging just ended up being a burden that has brought no advantages then write about that.

Again, I’m not sure how I want this to go and would appreciate any ideas from you. For example, you could write this all yourself or I could interview you and take it from there.

Anyway, these are my ideas and I’d really appreciated any input from yourself.

Please free to contact me about this.

We can speak on the telephone if this would help.

In total confidence and sincerity.

James Richards
Lecturer in HRM
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh, UK.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

We at The Times were wondering what you might think of this!

http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2007/04/time_for_a_park.html

Best Wishes,

Murad Ahmed

Anonymous said...

LMFAO

TotallyUn-Pc said...

would you tell me if the comment on my last post is somewhere near whats about to happen in the legal world... I may have offered a simplistic view.... but I'd like an input from a legal eagle!

Anonymous said...

the description may well be deserved but he may still be a good speaker able to train others. Funny though.

Anonymous said...

Hi Gavin,

Even though you appear to have stopped blogging at this moment in time, I would really like to interview you as part of some ongoing research on why people blog about their work.

I have done some preliminary research on work blogging and it can be viewed from my own blog

Work-related blogs and news or http://workblogging.blogspot.com

A paper I wrote on work blogs can be found here - http://www.esnips.com/doc/efbc63bc-0810-4124-a83d-a82a4a6d6da3/J_Richards_paper_112 (this paper is being reviewed for an academic journal).

The interview time will vary, but I would expect it to run from 30 to 60 minutes.

They would be conducted by telephone at my expense and at a time that would suit you.

The interview will be more like structured discussion and I can let you know in advance what the questions will involve - please let me know and I can email them to you.

Information from the interview will not be passed on to any third party and information used in a research paper will be anonymised and subject to your approval if the matter is open to interpretation or could identify you in some way.

Please let me know if you would help me out.

You can either email me back or ring me at work on 0131 451 3043.

Thanks.

James

Work profile: http://www.sml.hw.ac.uk/Staff_Profiles/JamesRichards.html

SoliciBot said...

If he is anything like me, he has probably been crushed by an influx of invitations for training.

Dozens of them. Every day. And, of course, the daily 'how many identical invites will I get from CLT' game...