Welcome to visitor 25,000 and Happy Christmas to all

Time pressures this year have really limited my ability to post to the point that I almost decided to archive this blog. Then, for a number of reasons, I decided to continue.

Noric Dilanchian was one reason. He sends me a steady stream of material that he thinks, correctly, is worthy of comment. Then, too, the blog still attracts traffic despite my poor posting. In this context, welcome to visitor 25,000 who came from Finland.

A lot of the traffic is attracted by the nuts and bolts posts I have written, the how to do material. This seems to meet a real need. Just yesterday I got an email from someone seeking advice on resolution of a very specific problem.

Finally, there is other writing that I should comment on. Yesterday in Pin Striped Prison, for example, Legal Eagle reviewed Lisa Pryor's The Pin Striped Prison, dealing with some of the issues that I have written about.

I find it hard to maintain a very active posting pattern. What I will try to do, however, is to maintain a regular posting pattern to keep the blog current.

For those to whom it is relevant, have a happy Christmas. May 2010 be a good year for all of us.   

Raising one's eyes unto the hills

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get very jaded in a professional sense. When I do, I go to Gordon Smith's photo blog.

Gordon's photos are from my home area. This one shows wattles in flower.

Wattle also known as mimosa is Australia's national flower. I really love the colour.

FICPI Australia Annual Conference 2008

In my last post on Corporatisation, Keddies and professional ethics I mentioned a conference paper I was delivering later this month.

Stephen Krouzecky (Hodgkinson McInnes Patents) invited me to be one of the key note speakers at the Australian Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI) 2008 Conference to be held on Magnetic Island from 25 to 28 July.

Australian legislation is to be changed to allow patents and trade marks firms to incorporate, perhaps the last professional services sector to be so affected. For that reason, FICPI has decided to focus this year's conference on issues raised by the corporatisation of patent attorney firms. I am to be the key note speaker at the session on the management and operational issues raised by the adoption of corporate approaches.

Stephen invited me to present because of the posts I had written on corporatisation within professional services. This reinforces a point I have made a number of times, the way in which an on-line presence can be used to reinforce professional standing.

The Year Ends

This will be my last post for the year, apart from some part completed previous posts that I still have to finish editing and bring on line.

In addition to clearing the post backlog, over the Christmas break I hope to take the time to properly review all the posts I have written since my introductory post on 3 July 2006. Some are ephemeral, but there are also threads that I would like to review to consolidate and extend what I have learned.

To all those who have visited and especially my regular readers, I wish you the best of the season. May 2008 be personally and professionally fulfilling for all of us.

In Praise of Lawyers - We have a democracy, if we can keep it.

Bruce MacEwen (Adam Smith Esq) had a rather interesting meditation marking 4 July. In it he discussed the role of business leaders in public debate. He posed the question why more lawyers did not make a contribution.

As it happened, I had been thinking about the same topic, but from a different perspective.

At a time when western governments are introducing more and more laws in the name of public protection, lawyers have become the main public defence prepared to defend civil liberties.

Too many people fail to realise, I think, that law has always been the main defence between the unfair exercise of coercive state power and the individual. We can see this clearly if we look at English history.

Today lawyers acting as citizens, not just for clients, continue this role to our great collective benefit. Long may it continue.

Time for Reflection - Banksia Flower

Photo: Gordon Smith, Banksia flower

The Australian bush can be spectacular in its rugged grandeur and its bright colours. But it is also true that people from countries used to bright greens can find the sometimes muted olive green hues of our forests strange.

Growing up in Australia's New England I took the bush for granted. It was just there. Now that I live in Sydney I miss what, to use an Australian Aboriginal phrase, I think of simply as country.

We all need time to pause and refresh, something that I am not good at. Gordon Smith's rather wonderful photos bring the feel and smell back.