Search
This area does not yet contain any content.
Justinian News

Unread emails ... Family law barrister in Adelaide neglects to attend to emails ... Reminders to renew her ticket studiously ignored ... Unravelling chaos ... Trials invalidated ... Liability of Law Society and Conduct Commissioner ... Breach of statutory requirement ... Damages ... From our Team on the Torrens ... Read more >> 

Politics Media Law Society


An Australian Abroad ... An essay with pictures … Egypt and the Grand Museum … No end to the antiquities … Down the Nile on a dahabiya … Tombs and temples … Paris and industrial-scale tourism … The Yarts & Kulture ... Read on >> 

Free Newsletter
Justinian Columnists

Annihilation of the now ...Trump's campaign of destruction ... Fake emergencies ... Pointless and farcical executive orders ... Gangsterism ... Looting ... Corruption ... Shakedowns ... White rage ... Christian nationalism ... Roger Fitch unloads ... Read more >> 

Blow the whistle

 

News snips ...


 

South Australian lawyer practising without a ticket ... Latest developments in Law Society of SA v Betro ... As an alternative to invalidating all the family law trials involving the unlicenced barrister, the Full Court has been approached re possibility of granting a retrospective practising certificate ... The mother in relevant proceedings applied to be joined to argue against this ... Joinder granted on a limited basis to make written submissions. See also Unread emails 

Justinian's Bloggers

Letter from London ... Weather report ... Starmer sinking ... Farage rising ... Fake law firm ... Fake cases ...  NHS employee cleans up with woke case for hurt feelings ... Floyd Alexander-Hunt files from Blighty ... Read more >> 

"In its self-image, Australia has changed from a nation of tough, resilient Anzacs to a snowflake society of victims. This can be seen in the rise of identity politics, cancel culture, trigger warnings, unconscious bias, workplace Broderickism, LGBTQIA+ pleading, colonisation impacts, hidden disabilities and welfare dependency. Hurt feelings, offensive words, micro-aggressions, workload stress and anxiety now form the basis of workers compensation claims."

Mark Latham MLC - a dissenting statement in a parliamentary report on proposed changes to workers compensation law ... May 2025 ... Read more flatulence ... 


Justinian Featurettes

Zeilgeist litigation ... Matt Collins KC on live-streaming of high-profile trials ... Social media nightmare ... Abuse of barristers ... Chilling emails ... Trials as a form of public entertainment ... Courts sleepwalking into a dangerous zone ... Framework needed to balance competing interests ... Paper delivered to Australian Lawyers Alliance Conference ... Read more >> 


Justinian's archive

Justice Jeff Shaw's bingle ... Supreme Court judge's drink-drive experience ... Cars damaged in narrow Sydney street ... Touch driving ... Missing blood sample ... Equality before the law may not apply to judges ... Judges behind the wheel ... From Justinian's Archive ... November 4, 2004 ... Read more >> 


 

 

« Michael Sexton and the Super Tuscans | Main | I'm just wild about Harry »
Friday
Jun072013

Gill Phillips

Gill Phillips is The Guardian's top in-house lawyer in London ... She's been in Australia for the past fortnight sussing out the local legal scene and drawing up long and short lists of external media law firms that might assist the new Australian edition of The Guardian ... We're fearlessly interrogating this lawyer who couldn't be an historian while she's recumbent on Justinian's couch 

Gill Phillips: identifies with taramasalata GILL PHILLIPS is the director of editorial legal services for Guardian News & Media Limited, publishers of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers and guardian.co.uk.  

Phillips trained at Coward (now Clifford) Chance before escaping from private practice in 1987 to join the BBC legal team.

Since then she has been an in-house lawyer for The Sun and The News of the World, a lecturer at the College of Law and an in-house lawyer for The Times and The Sunday Times.

She sat on the Ministry of Justice's Working Group on Libel Reform, and was a member of the Master of the Rolls' Injunction Committee.

She has been involved in advising The Guardian on Trafigura, phone-hacking, Wikileaks and the Leveson Inquiry.

She also sits as a part-time Employment Tribunal Judge.  

At the moment though, she's lying down on Justinian's couch ... 

Describe yourself in three words.

Short, short, short. 

What are you currently reading? 

I have two books on the go: Jeanette Winterson Why be happy when you could be normal; and a Scandinavian crime thriller called The Ice Cage

What's your favourite film?

I constantly change, but I watched the French-Australian film The Tree on SBS the other night and thought it was superb. 

Who has been the most influential person in your life? 

John Spencer my law professor at Cambridge - a great mind, a great man, but so endearingly humble. 

What is your favourite piece of music?

Pink, Dear Mr President. 

What is in your refrigerator? 

Wine, beer, milk and yogurt more wine and beer. 

What is your favourite website?

guardian.co.uk, although I also spend far too long on Transport for London's cycle routes.  

What do you recommend as a hangover cure?

Small diced apple with its skin left on and a diet coke with ice and lemon.  

What words or phrases do you overuse?

Just a couple of little tweaks. 

Was there an important opportunity that you didn't take?

Too many, but life's a constantly evolving journey and we have to make the most of whatever path we find ourself on. 

Why did you want to be a lawyer? 

Because I couldn't be a historian. 

How did you get a job at The Guardian

Working at The Guardian was always my dream job, but I thought an opportunity would never arise; then my predecessor moved to Ofcom and so there was a vacancy, which I applied for and got. 

What has been the most vexing legal issue facing the newspaper? 

Wikicables, because it was so global and so all embracing legally and so 24/7. 

What's your most glamorous feature?

Huh, you must be joking! Ask a friend! 

If you were a foodstuff, what would you be?

Taramasalata.  

What human quality do you most distrust?

Confidence. 

What would you change about the law in England?

I would make charging hourly rates illegal and I would get rid of contempt - it's old fashioned and doesn't work in the internet age. 

Whom or what do you consider overrated?

Instant puncture repair kits. 

What would your epitaph say?

She always tried to do her best. 

What comes into your mind when you shut your eyes and think of the word "law"? 

Lord Denning. 

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.
Editor Permission Required
You must have editing permission for this entry in order to post comments.