Why Legal Awards Don’t Interest Me
Don’t get me wrong. I think legal awards serve a purpose. To need an extrinsic indicator of success or recognition for their self-esteem is common. Legal awards serve this need. …
In Avoiding Small Talk
There was a period in my life when I equated small talk with tedium. I don’t think I had a problem with it prior to that or found it so …
Selective Amnesia and the Imposter Syndrome
My father once recited Rudyard Kipling’s If to me. I loved it and resonated with every line in that poem. But some of those lines I hold fast to. One …
Mentoring the Mediocre
For a long time now, I have not been discerning about whom I teach. The gifted, talented and brilliant naturally find equally competent teachers who wish to mentor, tutor and …
When I feel down, miserable and beaten
it is usually a sign that I have not got enough sleep or lost my sense of gratitude, often both. The former often leads to the latter. It happens when …
Notes about a 5-Year Bar Council Plan
For the last few years, I have been thinking that the Bar Council (BC) needs a long-term plan that articulates the spirit of its statutory duties as encapsulated in the …
The Secret to Extrinsic Success
Extrinsic success is the acclaim, awards and accolades society bestows on us. Or discretely purchase, for the less scrupulous. It is the laudatory honours that commemorate our societal or communal …
Taking Time Out
These days I don’t like saying that I am taking a vacation or going on holiday. Two reasons. Firstly, these days, there is the expectation that if we go on …
A Divorce Lawyer’s Suggestions on Sustaining a Relationship
As a practitioner of family law who oversees, manages and bears witness to the breakdown and failure of spousal and family relationships, as someone who has been through a divorce …
The Death Penalty
Are you for or against the death penalty? I have never liked that question because it demands an absolute binary answer. It is either a yes or a no, with …
Judiciary Recorders
Don’t worry, I am not pitching to sell the judiciary a new Court Recording and Transcription (CRT) system. The Recorders I am referring to are the English Recorders: appointed barristers …
All for one and one for all
Though the law was not my first choice and chosen for me, what matters, in the end, is that I answered when called. Having dwelled in the realm of legal …
23 Years at the Bar
I was called on 6 August 1999. Today I marks the completion of 23 full years in legal practice. I enter my 24th year in practice tomorrow. I always celebrate …
Will you still come see me?
There is a good friend of mine whom I have regular late night conversations with on a regular basis. I moved his call many years ago. We have been friends …