Legal Brand Names

… aren’t worth much it seems.

From the Solicitors Journal 17/10/11:

Brands in the legal services market suffer from poor consumer awareness, with nearly half of consumers relying on personal contacts when choosing a provider, a survey has revealed.

When choosing a law firm, 44 per cent said they would ask friends for a recommendation while a further 16 per cent said they would ask professionals they already knew, such as estate agents or accountants.

The most important factor for consumers when making decisions was whether the firm had been recommended by a friend and the total cost to them. Only 15 per cent regarded a ‘trusted brand name’ as the most important factor.

Most of this isn’t at all surprising. Surely the criteria reflect what every client wants from their solicitor: someone well-recommended, trusted, competent and cheap (preferably charging fixed fees).

Hmm – good luck with that one!

So I’m not at all surprised that so many people choose a lawyer through reputation and word of mouth, but I am slightly surprised that the weight attached to a established and trusted legal firm name was so insignificant.

Heck, maybe there is hope for Quality Solicitors after all then! 

Trick or Treating - 21st Century Style...

Halloween is a scary, dangerous time. Just making a Jack O’ Lantern gets me all of a quiver, what with the presence of raw vegetables, sharp knives and a lighted candle.

As well as the possibility of having Michael Myers lurking around the next corner, there are hazards to be found (and injuries avoided) with even the most innocuous of trick or treating adventure.  Still, whilst I’m all for a safety first approach, it can be overdone. 

From isurfhopkins.com:

Dressing up and trick-or-treating is a treasured part of childhood. To keep the evening’s fun meter on high, the Center for Disease Control and other health and safety groups advise:

Allowing children to go out during daylight hours only, unless accompanied by a responsible adult.

But it gets dark early at this time of year. And trick or treating at 3 in the afternoon just isn’t the same. Still, you could always give the kids dark glasses to give the impression of night.

Never allowing small children to go out alone on Halloween. Make sure an older sibling or adult is with them.

Why let them go out at all? Bad things happen out of doors & it’s far safer to leave them locked up in the attic. If you have to let kids go trick or treating, it should be carried out via Skype only!!

Planning a safe route and knowing where your older children are at all times. Set a time for their return home.

I’d suggest having them on a bungee cord – you can yank them back at the appropriate time then.

Instructing them to stop only at familiar houses in your own neighborhood unless you or another responsible adult is with them.

(In which case, go ape sh*t).

Instructing them not to eat any treats until they bring them home to be examined.

All treats should be forensically examined before being consumed. DNA data (for the purposes of elimination – and incriminating potential suspects - having been collected from ‘treaters’ in advance.

Instructing them not to go into the home of a stranger or get into anyone’s car.

Where’s the rape alarm, mace spray and Nunchaku?

Making sure the trick-or-treaters carry a flashlight, glow stick or have reflective tape on their costumes so they are more visible to cars.

I’d dunk my child in day-glo paint.

Letting them know that they should stay together as a group if they go trick-or-treating without an adult.

Yep – no loners at Halloween. It’s scary out there!!

Payment Protection… lost in translation

This brarmer (minus the pink text – I couldn’t help myself… sorry) plopped into my inbox a while back. I really didn’t expect something as raunchy from PayPal; since when did they get so smutty?

What’ve the smooching couple got to do with PayPal offering payment protection when one of your online purchases goes t*ts-up?

No, I don’t know either.

Anyway, good luck to the chap.  Now he’s bought his lady friend a necklace (which benefited from the payment protection thingy) I just hope she ‘puts out’.

Judging from the picture, I don’t think he’s got any worries in that department.

I just hope one of them has thought ahead.  I don’t think PayPal’s ‘protection’ stretches that far. 

(See, PayPal shouldn't be forcing me to go down these mental side roads).

Life as a modern law student - a few thoughts

On the back of my half-hearted ‘back to school’ series, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about just what an awful time it is to be a law student (or any kind of student for that matter).  Not to put anybody off, of course, (but seriously - think carefully).

Let’s face it: graduate jobs of any description are hard enough to come by right now.  I know a couple of people who are/were tackling the LPC part time and have put it on hold half way through because they’re so fearful of ploughing in the rest of the fees and then coming out the other side with a useless diploma and no chance of a training contract.

Understandably, there is a lot of concern that many would-be students are taking the attitude that going to university is simply not worth the expense, hassle and stress.

The Law Gazette report this:

The biggest fall in university applications in more than 30 years has seen the number of candidates applying to study law drop by a record 5.2%, according to figures released by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

Last year 13,858 people applied to study law at 26 universities that supplied figures to UCAS, but this year the number applying to start their course in autumn 2012 fell to 13,139.

Things aren’t even looking good for graduate recruitment schemes at the moment.  A few years ago, graduate training schemes were all the rage for students with almost any degree.  What a difference 2 or 3 years make.  Your average graduate is now more likely to get a bucketful of smelly stuff from a rocking horse than get accepted onto one of those programs.

Not long ago, a law degree was meant to be one of the more useful and versatile degrees out there, and one that would stand you in good stead for a wide range of graduate careers.  I’m not sure that holds true right now.

Other ‘friends of friends’ are considering jumping ship, all of whom are at various stages of their legal education. Right on cue, I’ve been fascinated to read about US blawgger Katie Luper who recently finished law school and jumped straight on an engineering course.  Kudos to her for that.  I don’t think many law graduates would have the guts to do that.  I know I wouldn’t.

So all in all, it’s an uncertain, scary time, folks. But if you’re a prospective uni student with absolutely no idea which path to take, do the responsible thing: flip a coin and let fate decide.

You’ll thank me for it.

For construction jobs try visiting Mane Recruitment.

Solicitor ‘Glamour’ – Real & Virtual

 

I know, I know. Just as you thought Roll on Friday couldn’t sink any lower, they bring out this brarmer.

Virtual lawyers, law firms ‘in the cloud’ and holographic lawsuits all seem a bit 2008 these days. I remember Pinsent Masons established a virtual office in Second Life a few years ago for any potential clients who fancied bringing a claim way out there in the ether. They swiftly wound it up, however, after realising it wasn’t doing them an ounce of good and was possibly contraindicated in raising their profile in a meaningful way.

Still, the prospect of instructing a virtual lawyer still hits the spot according to this poll; nearly 75% of voters (whoever they are) would prefer lawyer Steven Wu in his virtual, ‘aspirational’ form than his natural self.

That’s disturbing.

So maybe there is hope for virtual law firms after all – (particularly if the fee earners consist of a tasty bunch of butch and buxom pieces of eye-candy with omnipotent legal brains).

A sting in the tail

Over the weekend, we discovered a wasp nest up in the soffit box at the front of the house.  By the length of the wispy bits of wasp nest poking out under the grill in the soffit, it had been up there for a couple of years at least.  We only moved here in May and hadn’t noticed a thing all summer.

Being the wimpish sort, I got an exterminator in.  He duly turned up Tuesday morning and had already spotted the offending nest before I told him where it was.  He seemed quite excited at the prospect of blasting the suckers with pesticide.

Being a chilly kind of morning (and me supposedly working from home), while he fiddled about preparing his pole and nozzle (ahem), I went back into the house to get on with some work.

A while later I heard some exciting knocking at the front door.  When I got down there, he was standing by his van beckoning me to come out (but to run).  Feeling rather perturbed and wondering if the roof was about to come in, I sprinted across the front lawn and stood by his van.  “Look at that”, he said, pointing.  The front corner of the house was covered in a brownish cloud of swarming, angry wasps.

He warned me that the wasps would start falling from the sky soon.  I put that down as typical pest-exterminator-hyperbole (you know how it is...) but when I left for work around noon, the drive was covered with a carpet of dead wasps. 

I passed the postman on the way who was rubbing the back of his neck moaning that something can stung him further down the cul-de-sac.

Well I never … I wonder what that could have been.  He said he was going to sue someone’s ass for it.  Hmm - good luck with that one. 

There’s never a personal injury solicitor about when you need one, is there? 

Do you worry about your performance as a blogger?

There was an Interesting debate on Windows Weekly a few weeks ago in which Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott and Mary-Jo Foley briefly touched upon what it means to be a blogger. (Oh, and is it just me, or is Windows Weekly just not the same now?)

Anyhow, according to Leo, blogging is an obsession - and not always a healthy one.  Speaking for myself, I don’t know whether ‘obsession’ is the right word, but it’s certainly a labour of love.

I think it’s important not to hang on too tightly.  I’ve always made a point of only blogging when I feel like it. If blogging becomes a chore, what’s the point?

According to Leo, any self-respecting blogger sweats over their posts, is surgically attached to their computer keyboard, and dwells over what they have written (to the point of getting up in the middle of the night to correct an erroneous post). Casting a quick glance around the UK blawgosphere (which is starting to look a bit frayed around the edges – let’s be honest), I can’t see many of us doing that.

But it does beg the question: do you worry about your performance as a blogger? Do you start getting the willies if your blog traffic starts to fall?