*/
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
Making a move from the Bar to a career in governance: Maria Brookes outlines three good reasons to switch and how to do it
Inés Rivera explains how speech recognition can help barristers create accurate documentation faster
What should barristers be doing on the personal finance front ahead of the end of the tax year on 5 April? Julian Morgan of Fleet Street Wealth answers your questions
Are you ready to embark on this arduous but potentially rewarding journey? Julie Gottlieb of Sherwood PSF Consulting provides a self-examination checklist, hints and tips to help you prepare for a future application
Unlocking your aged debt to augment cash flow in one easy step… By Philip N Bristow of Vector Professions Finance
The journey from a small village in Nepal to international law professor and UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights: Admas Habteslasie talks to Surya Subedi QC (Hon)
The Westminster Commission on Miscarriages of Justice, set up to revisit the work of the CCRC after 25 years of operation, identified serious issues that risk miscarriages of justice remaining unidentified or unremedied. By Edward Garnier QC Michelle Nelson QC
Unsparing in his criticism, the former Attorney General reflects on recent events in government and his own experience of being chief legal adviser. Interview by Anthony Inglese CB
Making a move from the Bar to a career in governance: Maria Brookes outlines three good reasons to switch and how to do it
Sports coaches will be caught by a change in the law that addresses the disparity in treatment for 16- to 17-year-olds, writes Cameron Brown QC