Postcard from London

Watching Starmer mince the sausages ... How to move a file from the inactive list ... Court's failed email notification system ...Sleep monitors want to measure the extent of lawyers' restfulness ... Floyd Alexander-Hunt reporting from London 

Keir Starmer's recent address at the Labour conference proved that while the new government is having a rough time bringing home the budget bacon, it is also having trouble bringing home the sausages – I mean, hostages. 

Though, Starmer's blunder is not the first food slip in an important speech. If you cast your mind back to JFK's Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech in 1963, he unwittingly referred to himself as a Jelly Donut – no wonder it took 26 more years for the Berlin Wall to come down. 

With this in mind, penning this column half an hour before dinner is perhaps tempting fate. Hangry Floyd is this close to writing about the previous Conservative government, just so she can write about an Eton mess. 

Clear(l)y fabricated attendance notes

A paralegal named Lydia Cleary has been banned from working in the legal profession after she created false attendance notes on a client's file. 

These notes inaccurately implied that she had made phone calls that, in reality, never occurred. In fairness, attendance notes are notoriously boring – lacking both character, plot, and sentence structure.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has issued a section 43 order, prohibiting Cleary from working at any law firm without their approval and ordering her to pay part of their £600 legal costs.

Cleary had been employed by Bristol-based DAS Law since 2020, previously working in the personal injury department. Her LinkedIn profile stated that she handled a caseload of around 240 claims related to road traffic accidents valued at up to £25,000 on the whiplash portal. 

Given her penchant for creativity, she might add freelance writer to those credentials. 

Whiplash

In 2023, following the discovery of the fabricated notes, Cleary was transferred to the contract law and litigation dispute management department. 

No doubt they wanted to add some literary talent to their team with an opportunity to cut her teeth at some longer form writing. If attendance notes are poetry, then contracts must be prose. 

The SRA acknowledged that in Cleary's defence no clients had been harmed by her actions and that she had previously voiced concerns to her manager about the volume of work she was handling. 

However, the regulator deemed Cleary's actions serious, citing her dishonesty and lack of integrity. The notes gave a false impression that Cleary had worked on the case, enabling her to move the client's file from her inactive list. 

It's a cautionary take for those Type-A readers who want to tick off their to-do lists at all costs! 

Unread emails

A High Court judge has criticised a solicitor for not reading a court email, finding that the oversight was likely caused by the lawyer's intense work load (a common problem in the legal business). 

Loosely translated, this judicial speak reads as follows: "Pay attention and maybe unsubscribe from some newsletters and skin care emails." 

Mrs Justice Hill bemoaned the absence of a "robust system" to ensure that emails were properly reviewed and addressed. She said that solicitor Sarinjit Singh Bahia should have been anticipating communications from the court, knowing that an appeal had been issued, served, and permission granted. 

I suggest the next time the court sends an email, it adopt the approach of my then year five classmates, and include several emojis and an attention grabbing subject line: "IF U DON'T FORWARD THIS ONTO 10 PPL SUMTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN AT 11 PM TONIGHT." 

Emoji support for court communications 

The case, Yan Deng & Anor v Meng Zhang & Anor, involved an application to overturn an order allowing an appeal related to a costs budget. 

Yan Deng, the claimant in the original case, filed the application on the basis that he did not know about the appeal hearing. 

In his supporting statement, Bahia claimed that he did not receive any notice of the hearing from either the court or the other parties. 

He apologised for not attending the appeal and for the fact that [his first statement] incorrectly submitted that he had not received notice of the hearing. 

The judge went on: 

"It is perhaps unusual for a hearing to take place that has generated nothing more than one email between the parties and court, but that is what happened here.

"It might seem harsh to be critical of a solicitor for missing one email, but I am satisfied that such criticism is appropriate on the specific facts of this case." 

Big Brother

London law firms have been encouraged to monitor the sleeping patterns of their employees, particularly those who are struggling with mental health issues. No offence, but if anything is going to keep me awake at night, it's my employer monitoring my sleep! Talk about a nightmare. 

The Mindful Business Charter (MBC), a mental health charity focused on reducing unnecessary workplace stress, has urged law firms to check in on their overworked lawyers to ensure they are getting adequate rest and sleep. 

MBC recommends firms identify their employees who are at risk by implementing time tracking systems that alert managers if staff are consistently working long hours. 

Moreover, the charity encourages law shops to assess how well employees disconnect from their jobs and how much emotional support they receive outside of work. 

Possibly, a good solution is for more sleep at the office or in chambers. 

Another proposed strategy includes implementing a "buddy system" where staff members regularly "check in" on one another, and incorporate wellbeing support into performance evaluations to reward those who prioritise colleague care. 

I imagine that partners might just continue to "check in" with their underlings at 1 am in the morning. And while they're up ... they may as well bill some more hours. 

This advice comes amid concerns over toxic work culture in the legal profession, where lawyers are often expected to keep their noses to the grindstone, night and day - in exchange for lucrative pay cheques.

MBC has shared these recommendations with their members which includes most of the UK's magic circle shops and legal departments at the major banks - Barclays, NatWest, and Lloyds.

I'm off to bed.