*/
Author: Stephen Gold
Publisher: Bath Publishing (2016)
Format: Paperback 517pp and e-book
ISBN: 9780993583605
A legal textbook that is genuinely funny? You are joking. Well, not if it is written by one of the best legal communicators of my lifetime. Stephen Gold has crammed in too much as a successful solicitor, district judge and prolific author to be restrained by convention. He writes as he speaks, self-deprecating, funny, practical and wise. The result is part-biography, but mainly very shrewd consumer legal advice. It is spiced with good stories and much insight into the fear that the lay client so often has of the legal system. Lawyers may deplore that terror, but too often we do not do nearly enough to relieve it. This is a book to change all that and sets out to update itself free of charge by blog at breakinglaw.co.uk. That alone is typical of its ingenuity. Martin Lewis, the distinguished money saving expert, describes it in the foreword as an ‘emergency legal handbook’ and so it is. But many a student or practitioner would benefit from its very skilful presentation. They would learn the worth of crisp argument and avoiding what the author at one point calls ‘tommyrot’. This is how to communicate, by a master of the art. I loved it and recommend it with feeling.
Reviewer Nigel Pascoe QC, Pump Court Chambers and Counsel Editorial Board
A legal textbook that is genuinely funny? You are joking. Well, not if it is written by one of the best legal communicators of my lifetime. Stephen Gold has crammed in too much as a successful solicitor, district judge and prolific author to be restrained by convention. He writes as he speaks, self-deprecating, funny, practical and wise. The result is part-biography, but mainly very shrewd consumer legal advice. It is spiced with good stories and much insight into the fear that the lay client so often has of the legal system. Lawyers may deplore that terror, but too often we do not do nearly enough to relieve it. This is a book to change all that and sets out to update itself free of charge by blog at breakinglaw.co.uk. That alone is typical of its ingenuity. Martin Lewis, the distinguished money saving expert, describes it in the foreword as an ‘emergency legal handbook’ and so it is. But many a student or practitioner would benefit from its very skilful presentation. They would learn the worth of crisp argument and avoiding what the author at one point calls ‘tommyrot’. This is how to communicate, by a master of the art. I loved it and recommend it with feeling.
Reviewer Nigel Pascoe QC, Pump Court Chambers and Counsel Editorial Board
Author: Stephen Gold
Publisher: Bath Publishing (2016)
Format: Paperback 517pp and e-book
ISBN: 9780993583605
Sam Townend KC explains the Bar Council’s efforts towards ensuring a bright future for the profession
Giovanni D’Avola explores the issue of over-citation of unreported cases and the ‘added value’ elements of a law report
Louise Crush explores the key points and opportunities for tax efficiency
Westgate Wealth Management Ltd is a Partner Practice of FTSE 100 company St. James’s Place – one of the top UK Wealth Management firms. We offer a holistic service of distinct quality, integrity, and excellence with the aim to build a professional and valuable relationship with our clients, helping to provide them with security now, prosperity in the future and the highest standard of service in all of our dealings.
Is now the time to review your financial position, having reached a career milestone? asks Louise Crush
If you were to host a dinner party with 10 guests, and you asked them to explain what financial planning is and how it differs to financial advice, you’d receive 10 different answers. The variety of answers highlights the ongoing need to clarify and promote the value of financial planning.
On the 50th anniversary of the pub bombings, even now it is still unresolved. Chris Mullin, the journalist and former MP who led the campaign leading to the release of the Birmingham Six, looks back at events
Adele Akers’ reflections on health and wellbeing support at the very junior end of the Bar
Not one to say, ‘I told you so,’ Sam Thomas continues his cyber series with the key learnings from the major supply chain attack affecting 80 law firms and at least one set of chambers at the end of 2023
One year on and the Court of Appeal fails to quash convictions after receiving evidence of racism in the jury room, and there are still no revisions to the Equal Treatment Bench Book , says Keir Monteith KC
Most of us like to think we would risk our career in order to meet our ethical obligations, so why have so many lawyers failed to hold the line? asks Flora Page