tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70650012026-04-02T19:14:24.436+10:00John Flood's Random Academic Thoughts (RATs)I am a legal academic and sociologist commenting on the strange worlds of law, legal profession, bureaucracy, universities, and globalization. You can find my publications and download them at <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=552735">SSRN</a>John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.comBlogger631125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-39292352335733156592024-05-19T19:22:00.002+10:002024-05-19T19:24:32.678+10:00Bates, Post Office, and the Flawed Horizon: What if it had been on Blockchain?oThe TV show "Mr Bates vs the Post Office" has astounded viewers. That a venerable institution like the Post Office could lie, cheat, and hurt so many people with flawed computer systems for more than 20 years seems almost impossible yet it happened. The enquiry into the affair is showing how, despite knowledge to the contrary, PO officials hounded sub postmasters for illusory debts without John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4704528 153.0260341-55.780686636178842 117.8697841 0.83978103617884514 -171.8177159tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-85571879082450426292023-05-03T14:49:00.000+10:002023-05-03T14:49:06.463+10:00New Article on Clients' Perceptions of Lawyers in Hague Convention Cases Involving Domestic Violence (thanks to Loma Linda University)We have published an open access article in the International Journal of the Legal Profession at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09695958.2023.2199997.Authors are Gina Masterton (QUT), John Flood (Griffith), Zoe Rathus (Griffith), and Kieran Tranter (QUT).The abstract reads:Studies of lawyers and clients tend to be lawyer centric. How John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com1Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4704528 153.0260341-34.310693611820156 144.2369716 -20.630211988179845 161.8150966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-44577109292798701282022-04-01T16:06:00.001+10:002022-04-01T16:06:42.453+10:00Baker & McKenzie Embraces the DAO (thanks to Coindesk)Baker & McKenzie is always at the forefront of law firms. Its founder, Russell Baker, set the firm up in Chicago in 1949 as the world's first global law firm. It has hewed to this vision ever since. Those of you who know my work with Peter Lederer, a former senior partner of the firm, will be aware he helped establish the Zurich office in the 1960s. One legal John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4704528 153.0260341-41.935547366076733 135.4479091 -13.005358233923266 170.6041591tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-72951324383729733662021-08-10T09:57:00.001+10:002021-08-10T09:57:35.267+10:00Peter Lederer(thanks to Colin Levy)I write this post with a heavy heart as Peter Lederer died from a heart attack yesterday. Peter was my best friend and, in the nicest way possible, my consigliere. When faced with a decision that seemed beyond me, I would discuss it with him and things would be clearer.This is not about the entirety of Peter's life. That comes later. I want to tell how I encountered John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-83393425894051608132021-01-29T17:23:00.004+10:002021-01-29T18:02:06.396+10:00Monitoring the R-citizen in the time of Coronavirus(thanks to Scientific American)I have put a new paper up on SSRN. It is co-authored with Dr Monique Lewis and will appear in an edited collection later this year published by Routledge. The abstract reads as follows:The COVID pandemic has overwhelmed many countries in their attempts at tracking and tracing people infected with the disease. Our paper examines how tracking and tracing is done John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com9Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.0251235-36.022243431437481 144.236061 -18.917297968562522 161.814186tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-50442896599935004772020-08-31T20:02:00.000+10:002020-08-31T20:02:23.874+10:00Requiem for Reza REZA BANAKARI just heard that my friend and colleague, Reza Banakar, died from kidney cancer. He was Professor of Sociology of Law at Lund University. Before that we were colleagues at the University of Westminster. I greatly valued his collegiality and friendship. Sometimes I felt he and I were the only ones who knew what we were talking about.Reza was a great ally of the Research John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-43554408757340181382020-07-27T17:10:00.000+10:002020-07-27T17:10:13.702+10:00How I Miss London...
This is Queensbridge Road in Hackney, London and inside the building you see is my flat. Its refurbishment has just been completed and the flat's photos are up on the architects' website. I love it. It is even more minimalist than my previous house in Hackney.
My area is typical Hackney. I'm next to the canal, close to London Fields and my neighbour is as cool as you can get:
John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com3London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758351.1912379 -0.7732053 51.8234639 0.5176887tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-25035870923704910322020-03-28T15:57:00.002+10:002020-03-28T15:57:51.833+10:00Slow Professions and Fast Change: Law's Response to Covid-19
The last time I encountered Rene Thom's Catastrophe Theory was when I was writing my PhD thesis on law firms. I wanted to show how law firm mergers were an all or nothing occurrence in that you couldn't have a gradual merger.
Thom's ideas are based on a number of sources but the easiest one to grasp is dogs' behaviour. On the far upper edge of the diagram above we see a linear progression John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-37924841644486378272019-11-28T18:10:00.000+10:002019-11-28T18:10:19.111+10:00LawTech and the Legal Profession and Academy
(thanks to Law, Technology and Humans)
A new journal started by my colleague, Kieran Tranter, has published its first issue. Law, Technology and Humans is an open access journal committed to the wide and unrestricted dissemination of knowledge:
Law, Technology and Humans encourages scholarship that reflects on how technology is changing law, regulation and normative conduct and alsoJohn Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com55Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.02512350000006-28.3721187 151.73423000000005 -26.5674227 154.31601700000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-39698698049507969792019-10-16T21:51:00.000+10:002019-10-16T21:51:35.322+10:00Globalisation, Law, and Lawyers in a Time of Crisis
I have put a new paper on SSRN which is the introduction to a new book called The Global Lawyer by Kate Galloway, Melissa Castan, and me. It is due out from LexisNexis in December. I would appreciate any feedback. The abstract reads:
Using Kondratieff's concept of economic waves (K waves) which span 60 years this paper examines the conjunction of the end of the fifth cycle and the John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com3Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.02512350000006-28.3721187 151.73423000000005 -26.5674227 154.31601700000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-70759161057178679602019-08-28T16:13:00.000+10:002019-08-28T16:13:48.524+10:00Time for Legal Sandboxes
I was struck reading a blog post by Crispin Passmore (late of the SRA and LSB), Utah turns US reform party into a carnival. The Utah Bar and Supreme Court thoroughly investigated ways of increasing access to justice through the process of regulatory reforms. Their commission contained, among others, Gillian Hadfield and Margaret Hagan. One doesn't normally associate the US legal profession John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com47Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.02512350000006-28.3721187 151.73423000000005 -26.5674227 154.31601700000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-3536742727392326062019-06-16T19:42:00.000+10:002019-06-16T19:42:44.117+10:00Why Law Firms Must Change How They Work (or do they?)
The Financial Times has published an article with this title (£). It's a bit of a strange piece, and a number of the commenters agree.
The gist of the piece is that unless big law firms change their ways of working--long hours, lack of promotion prospects, especially for women--they are doomed. Their hegemony is no longer assured because upstarts can overcome barriers to entry and poachJohn Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com87Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.02512350000006-28.3721187 151.73423000000005 -26.5674227 154.31601700000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-22698336099659848422019-06-14T21:43:00.000+10:002019-06-14T21:43:29.391+10:00Blockchain and Standards: is it impossible?
Adrian McCullagh and I have put up a new paper on SSRN, titled, Blockchain's Future: Can the Decentralised Blockchain Community Succeed in Creating Standards?
The abstract reads: Nakamoto proposed a new solution to transact value via the internet. And since 2009 blockchain technology has expanded and diversified. It has, however, proven to be inefficient in the way it achieves its John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com9Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.02512350000006-28.3721187 151.73423000000005 -26.5674227 154.31601700000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-45601873247661863582019-06-01T18:05:00.001+10:002019-06-01T18:08:13.098+10:00Rake and Rumpole: Mavericks for Justice
I have put up a new paper on SSRN comparing Rake's Cleaver Greene and Horace Rumpole of the Bailey. They offer contrasting views of professionalism, among other things. To make sense of this I use Mary Douglas's ideas of Purity and Danger (or taboo).
The abstract reads:
My thesis is that lawyers regularly fall into two categories in various media—
either saints or John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com3Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.02512350000006-28.3721187 151.73423000000005 -26.5674227 154.31601700000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-24024094396309178122019-05-28T11:45:00.000+10:002019-05-28T11:45:22.375+10:00Lawyers and Arbitration redux...
Back in 1993 Andrew Caiger (now a barrister in South Africa) and I submitted a paper to the Modern Law Review, which was then under the editorship of the late Simon Roberts. The topic of the paper was lawyers and arbitration in construction disputes based on a series of interviews we had done.
Simon was a wonderful editor helping me through the writing process with encouragement, never John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com11Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.02512350000006-28.3721187 151.73423000000005 -26.5674227 154.31601700000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-52175757389581424372019-05-08T11:16:00.000+10:002019-05-08T11:16:56.738+10:00Dirty Money and Lawyers
There's been a dramatic rise in "unexplained wealth orders" in the UK. And East European oligarchs are finding Britain a less accommodating place to hide their wealth. These are nasty orders because if you can't say what the source of your money is, then it's confiscated.
According to the Financial Times a survey of 59 law firms by the Solicitors Regulation Authority shows the firms have John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-42988310837672117292019-01-15T12:07:00.000+10:002019-01-15T12:12:33.050+10:00Legal Professionals of the Future: Their Ethos, Role and Skills
(Thanks to Persuasive Litigator)
I have put up a new paper on SSRN titled, "Legal Professionals of the Future: Their Ethos, Role and Skills". It is part of a new collection being edited by Professor Michele DeStefano and Dr Guenther Dobrauz-Saldapenna, New
Suits: Appetite for Disruption in the Legal World, to be published by Stampfli Verlag this year.
The abstract reads: The paperJohn Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com10Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.02512350000006-28.3721187 151.73423000000005 -26.5674227 154.31601700000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-49173303902174273352018-11-28T19:59:00.001+10:002018-11-28T19:59:24.943+10:00Barristers' Clerks: The Middlemen of the Law
Years ago, 1983 to be precise, a young and precocious academic published his first book. Barristers' Clerks: The Law's Middlemen has had a varied and storied life.
As it's out of print I have let it be downloaded for free from my website but that's out of action until I redesign it. So I have transferred the book to my SSRN page where you can download it.
If you don't want to do that, John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-77855520406176629302018-11-13T18:17:00.001+10:002018-11-13T18:17:22.559+10:00Are professions merely a set of outcomes? Where Susskind got it wrong.
Richard Susskind has recently published a short paper arguing people don't want professionals, they want solutions and answers. The paper then criticises professions for being more concerned with themselves than the people they serve. All in all, there is little wrong with this except the hoped for outcome--an outcomes-based set of professionals--won't happen.
Susskind is first and foremostJohn Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com61Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.02512350000006-28.3721187 151.73423000000005 -26.5674227 154.31601700000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-20192200998021191292018-11-05T19:06:00.000+10:002018-11-05T19:06:12.445+10:00Professions, Machine Learning, Blockchain...revised
After receiving many kind comments on our paper, "Professions and Expertise: How Machine Learning and Blockchain Are Redesigning the Landscape of Professional Knowledge and Organisation", I have substantially revised it and put the new version on SSRN. I want to thank in particular Professor Laurel Terry of the Dickinson Law School at Penn State University. I hadn't realised how many John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com91Brisbane-25.430724425775836 151.431888399846-53.40015942577584 110.123294399846 2.5387105742241651 -167.25951760015403tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-83577070751280720082018-08-09T15:22:00.000+10:002018-08-09T15:22:31.223+10:00Professional Expertise, Machine Learning, and Blockchain (and in Law too)
(thanks to supplychaintoday.com)
My student, Lachlan Robb, and I have put a new paper on SSRN. The paper is
"Professions and Expertise: How Machine Learning and Blockchain are Redesigning the Landscape of Professional Knowledge and Organisation"
The abstract reads
Machine learning has entered the world of the professions with differential impacts. Engineering, architecture, and medicine John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com39Brisbane, Queensland, Australia-27.68352808378776 152.578125-55.653012583787756 111.269531 0.28595641621224033 -166.11328100000003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-64893060913456866902018-08-08T12:06:00.000+10:002018-08-08T12:06:39.317+10:00The Accountants Are Really Coming...this time....
(thanks to giant bomb.com)
I'm sure PwC, EY, KPMG, and Deloitte would like to be thought of the same way as these bands, but...dream on. Why are they there? A press release from Karl Chapman popped into my overstuffed mailbox saying Riverview Law has just been acquired by EY.
Despite the hype of press releases, this is a significant move in the legal services market. At bottom it shows two John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com325Brisbane, Queensland, Australia-27.007378292702718 153.18980294918811-54.976861792702721 111.88120894918811 0.96210520729728088 -165.50160305081192tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-39894889070196874422018-06-25T15:47:00.000+10:002018-06-25T19:01:09.429+10:00How Courts Compete with Each Other
(thanks to rechtspraak.nl)
It can be a harsh world in the world of courts today. Competition is intensifying. Courts not only have to pay their way, they now have to face challenge from equivalent courts in foreign jurisdictions. What might have been a cosy sinecure in the past is now cold and clinical.
International arbitration is the prototypical competitive scene as Stockholm, Paris, NewJohn Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com175tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-59173457890245549922017-12-13T00:27:00.001+10:002017-12-13T00:27:05.665+10:00Why Do Lawyers Hate Their Clients?
I've been reading about my sociology PhD supervisor, Howie Becker. He's big in France, which is weird because he's the antithesis of theoretical. Unlike Bourdieu, Becker isn't sterile and formulaic. Instead he asks questions about how something is done. There's a rather nice article about him in the New Yorker, which for the English among you would be like being featured on Desert Island John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com15Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4697707 153.02512350000006-28.3721187 151.73423000000005 -26.5674227 154.31601700000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7065001.post-56440911921863228062017-12-02T21:24:00.000+10:002017-12-02T21:37:37.531+10:00Law's Missing Institution (Mind the Gap...) A Manifesto for New Ideas in Law
(thanks to meinhardtgroup.com)
This is a picture of Hong Kong Science Park in the New Territories. It's a tremendous place and I visited it in October while visiting at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law. I had gone to see a blockchain startup there, but the visit made me think about why there were no law startups or businesses in the park.
My thoughts here, then, relate to a legal John Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03618951794976509582noreply@blogger.com3