Obscentiy Lawyer is Junior Lawyer of the Year 2012

Yes, I've been far too slow getting to a story that I'm sure many of you are already aware of.  Nonetheless, it seemed important to still mark the occasion.

The brilliant, kind and now, award-winning, Myles Jackman (aka @ObscenityLawyer) of Hodge, Jones & Allen LLP, walked away with the Junior Lawyer of the Year Award at the Law Society bash last month.  

Myles has forged a reputation through his obscenity work, and the high-profile cases of Peacock, Walsh (which I was involved with in a tiny tiny way), and the 'Tiger Porn' case.  I have found him to have a deep and sophisticated understanding of sexuality, legal theory and human rights.    That sounds a little bit patronising, but what I mean to say is that he's a guy who brings an awful lot to the practise of law and that depth of understanding benefits his work and his clients.   Undergraduate law students seeking to undertake a career in the law, should perhaps consider the long-term benefits of the broader, more liberal-arts subjects as part of their studies alongside narrower vocational subjects.

Myles also appears in the Law Society Gazette today reflecting on his 'legal life', and the short piece is well worth a read.  His closing remarksshould be reflected upon by all law students:  'If you want to be a lawyer but are not sure what to do, be a corporate lawyer.  If you have a calling – a vocation – be a legal aid lawyer.'

The Voracious Escort Habits of Lawyers

The Orlando Sentinel - surely the reading choice of ever Brit - carried a rather wonderful piece this week concerning Scott Rothstein who is embroiled in a  little local legal difficulty following a spot of fraud which led to his imprsonment and the downfall of his law firm.

Apparently, the Fort Lauderdale law firm maintained a condo across the street where he and his law partners would have sex with prostitutes/sex workers and then come back to work.  Rothstein is reported as saying: 

"There were probably times when we spent $50,000, $60,000 a month on escorts," Rothstein said. "It just depends. When there were political things in town, more. Big functions, conventions, more. People in town to entertain, more money. But it was a lot of money just for the law partners that were using escorts. Some of them had fairly voracious escort habits."

All of which got me thinking, how many other law firms do this?  Not on the same scale of course, or anything as obvious as arranging escorts in this manner in a local commercial harem, but putting people in the room with people who may be escorts as part of providing 'a good entertainment mix' for example.  None of which is to condemn, but I am curious as to the extent it can be found among the bigger city based firms in particular.

Just as high street solicitors must deal with those arrested for dealing with cocaine, and city solicitors must sometimes find a new dealer, it is a world that is not unknown to have some legal tightrope walking.  Drugs is a known cultural reality for some of our city-based elite in the course of commercial networking.  What of sex work?

Out & Proud Corporate Counsel Award Reception

US based readers might be interested in this event:

Out & Proud Corporate Counsel Award Reception
Thursday, February 2, 2012 | 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
The Terrace Club 25 West 51st Street
New York, New York

The Out & Proud Corporate Counsel Award Receptions give LGBT legal professionals and their straight allies the opportunity to honor distinguished colleagues who have worked hard to increase LGBT diversity awareness in the corporate office and in the community. These receptions provide a business casual environment for LGBT counsel of all levels of the corporate sphere to gather and network toward the betterment of diversity in the legal profession.

 This is a ticketed event. All corporate counsel receive complimentary tickets courtesy of the LGBT Bar. Click here to RSVP. For sponsorship opportunities and general admission tickets, please contact Kelly Simon at (202) 637-7661 or Kelly@LGBTbar.org.

The Indy Pink List

Any list will always be criticised, and will never achieve 'perfection'.  Nonetheless, they offer a barometer of who appears to be making an impact among those that the media deem worthy judges of such things.  It's a sort of slightly more straight-forward REF (one for the academics).  Anyhow, the Independent on Sunday has published their annual pink list today and it makes for an interesting read.  It seems slightly more diverse than previous names, featuring people that you might not be instantly familiar with - less celebrity focused and more activist focused.  I like it.

The list can be viewed in full here, and the number 1 slot is taken by Elly Barnes - music teacher, trainer and diversity officer.  Interesting Terence Etherton is once more in the list (Lord Justice Etherton) at 26, and Daniel Winterfeldt is a new entry at 90.  Winterfeldt is of the Interlaw Diversity Forum for LGBT Networks, a forum for the legal sector with more than 1,000 members and supporters from 70 law firms and 40 corporates and financial institutions.  Quite why he made it on his own is a bit of a mystery to me (given he is 'co' chair and 'co' founder).

After a decade of tremendous change to the socio-legal landscape of 'gay' rights in the UK, it i striking that so few legal figures still feature on the list.

Homophobia and the Legal Profession

The Guardian carried a really interesting piece on Thursday from Alex Aldridge (check out one of his podcasts in my earlier blogpost here).  He notes that the judicial appointments committee (JAC) – the body founded in 2006 to enhance judicial accountability – has begun to monitor the sexuality of wannabe judges (it already monitors gender, ethnicity, age, professional background and disability). He also notes that the JAC is also increasing its engagement with the gay lawyer community through talks at LGBT legal events (yes, they do exist) and the publishing of case studies of gay judges.

I remain concerned that many of these efforts are London based and as Aldridge highlights in his piece, even in London, homophobia appears evident, so how fares gay lawyers in the so called 'provinces'?

He also notes the growing number of law firms now included in Stonewall's index of gay-friendly employers (six in the recent list).  Whilst this is probably a sign of progress, I remain deeply critical of this survey as a box ticking exercise.  Have an LGBT group - excellent.  The survey doesn't take account of how often such a group meets, or how vibrant it is (instead terms of reference and other such worthy documents are produced).  It's a human resources dream, good at forms, and writing policies, you're in.  This is, of course, better than nothing but a more rigorous process is needed if we want to see real demonstrable change.  In case, you think I'm being too cynical, check out the 2012 workplace equality index criteria here.

Aldridge also notes the regular complaint among legal LGBT groups that they are dominated  dominance  by 'a certain type of confident gay man'. Apparently, just 30% of the Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association (LAGLA) members are female.

Check out the full piece here.

Being a 'Gay' Lawyer

Many thanks to Kevin Poulter who alerted me to this podcast on Alex Aldridge's blog.  It features Bar Professional Training Course graduate Adam Fellows, who was called to the bar in July, debating LGBT networks and other issues affecting gay lawyers with Kevin Poulter, one of the founders of the Gay Employment Lawyers Network. Alex Aldridge poses questions in between pouring the wine.

It's fascinating discussion, revealing for those who don't already know the existence of LGBT lawyer groups and how they operate, but more importantly it offers a really honest insight into the realities of being an LGBT lawyer.  I was really struck by the comments from (I think) Adam Fellows who notes the importance of the potential to meet clients/instruct barristers as part of an LGBT social event when one accounts for time.  A social event per se is less attractive.  I find this aspect of lawyering rather depressing but it's entirely unsurprising to see it creep into these LGBT networks.

It also serves to 'professionalise' sexuality - to create a new idea of the 'gay lawyer' (I wonder how those who identify as 'bisexual' or 'open minded' or indeed 'queer' fit into these networks) who profits from these networks but I wonder how much diversity is squeezed out in this space.  I am assuming that discussing a civil partnership is a nice conversation, but is someone able to describe an orgy at the local sauna? Of course not you might say, but I am conscious of the number of city-based lawyers who - I am told - regularly consume illegal chemical substances and this is socially acceptable.  So, this does speak to the 'norms' of gay lawyering.

I'm also curious about the gender angle - and the extent to which the experiences of lesbian lawyers match those of their gay male counterparts.  I rarely here lesbian lawyers in these discussions.

Towards the end, the discussants suggest that sexuality is just a label and doesn't really matter but then also comment that a judge would be less likely to come out because any unpopular judgment would be editorialised by the Daily Mail (and presumably other media publications) as 'the gay judge'.  This would seem to suggest that labels really do matter, and underlies the importance of being open about ones sexuality.  The failure to connect these two points by the speakers is rather interesting.

The lawyers in this podcast are based in London and I wonder if LGBT lawyers in say the north east of England would say similar things.  I'd love to hear from others in comments about their own experiences  - either as LGBT lawyers, trainees or students who have been on placements/mini pupillages.

Listen to the podcast in full here.

(Pictures from top to bottom: Alex Aldridge, Kevin Poulter, Adam Fellows)

CORRECTION:  Kevin tells me it was him who commented on client aspect of networking rather than Adam.  Sorry guys!

The Lawyer Diversity Report

The Lawyer has just published its 2010 Diversity Report which can be downloaded here. The report suggests that although the 'elite' firms are making an effort, there is still discrimination. Interesting coverage of gender and sexuality. On a personal level, it was good to see my old firm (Irwin Mitchell - I was responsible for legal training there many moons ago) now apparently has an LGBT network.

Judicial Culture and LGB Lawyers

I mentioned the other week that I was down in London for a Stonewall event at the Law Society looking at sexuality and the judiciary/legal profession. I'm really pleased to see it was picked up by the Guardian yesterday and you can read a great piece that flags up the work Les Moran and Interlaw have been doing. Read the story here.