Sharks Alive

Delegates at the recent LAWASIA Biennial Conference held in the Gold Coast were understandably excited when the optional Social Programme included dinner and a tour of the Gold Coast’s Seaworld. On arrival, however, they realised that the organisers had pulled one on them. The Seaworld tour included a compulsory stop at Shark Bay. Needless to say professional courtesy demanded that everybody get along!

CasiNOtes

While the casino debate at home was raging, jurisdictions already ahead of us in the gambling scene seem to have adapted to social issues thrown up by the presence of casinos on their turf as can be seen by these `help cards’ freely available at casinos at the 
Gold Coast.

How the Dutch do it

Those who remember the infamous 
e-mail from a Norton Rose lawyer about his girlfriend, which spread rapidly across the UK and beyond, probably do not need a warning about the perils of such communications, but clearly the lesson has not been learned in Holland. It was reported this week that a Dutch law student wrote in an e-mail how he had ‘finally finished this stupid education’ and was ‘now looking for someone crazy enough to dump a suitcase full of money in my lap every month’. He meant to send it to a friend at a leading Dutch firm, but got the address wrong and sent it to someone else at the firm. That person forwarded it and in the way of these things, it has now been seen by virtually every lawyer in the land. Apparently, one lawyer who saw the e-mail wrote ‘Good luck with your career’, while another noted that ‘the advantage is that now everyone in the legal profession in Holland knows your name’. And certainly, it does not appear to have sabotaged this lad’s lofty plans, as the firm in question is among those shortly to interview him for a job.