Guide to the legal profession: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Monitor support.png|450px|thumb|center|Pride of place in the [[JC]] library of functional publications]] | [[File:Monitor support.png|450px|thumb|center|Pride of place in the [[JC]] library of functional publications]] | ||
}}Those vanity-published [[Guide to the legal practice|annual guides to the profession]] are | }}Those vanity-published [[Guide to the legal practice|annual guides to the profession]] are invaluable to the modern practitioner: they make ''excellent'' platforms for raising your monitor in the home office. They are sturdy, stable, give a good inch or so of clearance, and when used in groups, even competing products (like the “[[Legal 500]]” or any of the [[Chambers]] Global Practice Guides) are stackable, interoperable, and backwards-compatible. | ||
A [[legal almanac]] scores over the traditional ream of A4 printer paper in one key regard: ''durability''. Because it has is no other practical ''use'', you may | A [[legal almanac]] scores over the traditional ream of A4 printer paper in one key regard: ''durability''. Because it has is no other practical ''use'', you may stuff two or three of them under your screen without fear of having to disassemble your workstation later because you are in a rush and the last sod to use the printer didn’t restock the paper supply. On the other hand, a ream as a monitor prop is a ''private stash''. A physical almanac is ''prospective recycling''. | ||
Recent times have nonetheless been tough for [[legal almanac]] publishers. They have been hit by a triple cocktail of woe: | Recent times have nonetheless been tough for [[legal almanac]] publishers. They have been hit by a triple cocktail of woe: | ||
===[[Critical theory]] got ... critical === | ===[[Critical theory]] got ... critical === | ||
In 2019, from nowhere, publishers were forced into bouts of panicked defensive [[virtue-signalling]] when their “rigorous selection methodology” — largely “recommending your buddies as a prank and then voting for each other” — was found to be doctrinally wanting by humourless [[Critical theory|critical legal theorist]]s.<ref>Or | In 2019, from nowhere, publishers were forced into bouts of panicked defensive [[virtue-signalling]] when their “rigorous selection methodology” — largely “recommending your buddies as a prank and then voting for each other” — was found to be doctrinally wanting by humourless [[Critical theory|critical legal theorist]]s.<ref>Or perhaps practitioners, ''posing'' as humourless critical legal theorists, who were disappointed not to have been included.</ref> | ||
The publishers’ response, though reasonable —“wait a minute? No-one | The publishers’ response, though reasonable —“wait a minute? No-one ''reads'' these guides, do they? Doesn’t everyone just use them to prop up their monitors?” — fell on deaf ears. | ||
But publishers are nothing if not resourceful: the new “Chambers [[Diversity & inclusion|Diversity & Inclusion]]” is an exclusive guide to the intersectionally-marginised global elite.<ref>https://diversity.chambers.com/ “Diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of what we do and who we all are. We are all, in that regard, | But publishers are nothing if not resourceful: the new “Chambers [[Diversity & inclusion|Diversity & Inclusion]]” is an exclusive guide to the intersectionally-marginised global elite.<ref>https://diversity.chambers.com/ “Diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of what we do and who we all are. We are all, in that regard, the same, yet at the same time we screen our people to make sure [[D&I]] is a fundamental part of their, and therefore our, DNA.”</ref> | ||
===Covid goes virtual=== | ===Covid goes virtual=== | ||
But the trouble didn’t stop with a couple of beanish [[snowflakes]]. The [[Covid]] pandemic prompted | But the trouble didn’t stop with a couple of beanish [[snowflakes]]. The [[Covid]] pandemic prompted legal almanac publishers to go digital, thereby making the same [[category error]] the [[Critical theory|critical theorist]]s did, which was to assume that people want professional guides in order to ''read'' them. | ||
But | But a moment’s reflection should tell us they do not: one looks up one’s own entry and, if it is there, sends a photocopy to mum; if not, commends yet another quiet resentment to the eternal pool in one’s interior monologue but then swiftly rallies and gathers oneself, by putting the guide to any of its many better uses: propping up monitors, holding open fire-stop doors, being dotted around the department between pot plants to make the place look learned, or just loafing around passively on filing cabinets. Legal guides can survive this way for years. | ||
Now this being the case, an ''e-''version of a legal almanac no good at all ''unless you print it out''. But that | Now this being the case, an ''e-''version of a legal almanac no good at all ''unless you print it out''. But that would blow a ream of virgin printer paper, and you are better just to use the ream as it is, lest you later need it to cover a late-night printing emergency. | ||
But it becomes less likely by the day that you you will. Covid is a ''double'' crisis for almanac publishers because the working [[mediocritariat]] has realised it ''doesn’t need to print'', so no-one does any more, and there are oodles of reams lying around the office, which make ''perfect'' monitor stands... | |||
But it becomes less likely by the day that you you will. Covid is a double crisis | |||
{{sa}} | {{sa}} | ||
*[[Risk Magazine]] | |||
* [[Critical theory]] | *[[Awards]] | ||
*[[Critical theory]] | |||
* [[FT book about derivatives|That awful FT book about derivatives]] | * [[FT book about derivatives|That awful FT book about derivatives]] | ||
{{ref}} | {{ref}} |