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The circle of life

08 March 2012 / Jennifer James
Issue: 7504 / Categories: Blogs
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Jennifer James reviews life on the legal treadmill

It’s that time of year again; the QC lists have come out and the select few are rightly preening themselves and preparing party lists, guest lists and a huge to-do list for life’s next career adventure. The legal profession sometimes puts me in mind of a vast treadmill, the sort of thing they used to operate in Reading Gaol, with Oscar Wilde at one end pedalling away like billyo while composing piqued Facebook messages to Lord Alfred Douglas. Seriously, though, doesn’t it sometimes feel as though it never ends?

Making the grade

You get your undergraduate degree and then you have to get onto a post-graduate law course in short order, lest your original qualification should go stale. You work your socks off at postgrad level, realising that this is your last best chance to get a serious leg up on the competition.

Alternatively, you have a large time and loaf around for a year intending to put in some serious cramming in the last

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Quinn Emanuel—James McSweeney

Quinn Emanuel—James McSweeney

London promotion underscores firm’s investment in white collar and investigations

Ward Hadaway—Louise Miller

Ward Hadaway—Louise Miller

Private client team strengthened by partner appointment

NLJ Career Profile: Kate Gaskell, Flex Legal

NLJ Career Profile: Kate Gaskell, Flex Legal

Kate Gaskell, CEO of Flex Legal, reflects on chasing her childhood dreams underscores the importance of welcoming those from all backgrounds into the profession

NEWS
Overcrowded prisons, mental health hospitals and immigration centres are failing to meet international and domestic human rights standards, the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) has warned
Two speedier and more streamlined qualification routes have been launched for probate and conveyancing professionals
Workplace stress was a contributing factor in almost one in eight cases before the employment tribunal last year, indicating its endemic grip on the UK workplace
In Ward v Rai, the High Court reaffirmed that imprecise points of dispute can and will be struck out. Writing in NLJ this week, Amy Dunkley of Bolt Burdon Kemp reports on the decision and its implications for practitioners
Could the Supreme Court’s ruling in R v Hayes; R v Palombo unintentionally unsettle future complex fraud trials? Maia Cohen-Lask of Corker Binning explores the question in NLJ this week
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