Friday 13 July 2007

Pardon?

OK so its not got anything to do with legal education as such but I couldn't resist. The Lawyer (again) had a wonderful piece today on the fact that the Institute of Barristers' Clerks has prepared a glossary of clerking slang. As its not 1st April I am assuming it is the real thing! For those of you who thought most legal language was a bit obscure, trust me, this is in a league of its own.

If you wander across to my old friend John Flood's blawg you will find various snippets about this extraordinarily idiosyncratic part of the English legal system, as John pretty much cut his teeth as a researcher on the subject of barristers clerks rather longer ago than he might care to admit. I do know we've shared one or two "frighteners" over the years. but I wonder if he knows what a "Dionne Warwick" is? Watch this space.... My personal favourite is the definition of a "fox hole": "area beneath desk where telephone calls can take place peacefully". Now that really is what I call a bad day at the office.

1 comment:

John Flood said...

I think it was when Julian said "rather longer ago than he might admit", I realise I've been caught napping on the job. Big hat tip to Julian for bringing this to my attention as I missed it! And I am actually doing fieldwork on clerks now. I used to think I was good at research...

These sorts of things ring true. One clerk was telling me that before the internet, when a clerk got hold of a judgment he would send it out to solicitors to show they were on the job. But more importantly he could sell the judgment to other clerks. In fact he set up the market of donuts for judgments. A House of Lords decision was worth a lot of donuts!