Law Society’s puts anti-lockdown lawyer on notice … Conduct rules in play … Bring it on … Swollen crowdfunded war chest … Anti-Vac … Threats and tirades … Calling on the AFP to prosecute the Premier of Victoria for “treason” … “Nuremberg law” … Alan Zheng reports on the cult of celebrity 

Covid-19 updates from Level 29 Aickin Chambers … Freedoms should be restored … Death rates confined to oldies … Missives to Prof. Brett Sutton seeking projections … “Cytokine storm” not wished for … Beautiful charts and graphs … And, appeal judges in Sydney smile on a solicitor the Law Society wanted binned … Theodora on her rounds  COMMENT: Readers of this piece, including Michael Wyles, may be completely unaware that 6 weeks of Stage 4 lockdown pales into insignificance beside the fact that we are presently holding in immigration detention hundreds of people who have committed no offence at all (despite Minister Dutton and his mates dishonestly calling them “illegals”) and we have held some of them for up to 11 years, in prison-like environments.
To add to the misery of their isolation, the government has recently decided to move many of them to Christmas Island, arguably the remotest part of Australia, and Dutton wants to take their mobile phones off them, in case some good Australians want to help break their isolation by ringing them.
If the isolation of Stage 4 lockdown troubles you, spare a thought for the innocent people we are holding in detention, for years on end.

ASIC v Harold Mitchell … Rollicking language from High Court prospect … Something old at the new ACT drug court … Roadkill at Tasmanian Legal Aid … Women lawyers gazumped for High Court appeal … Tears for Balmain woman … Theodora is out and about with her notebook COMMENT: Practitioners in the field of wills and estates might also recall his conservative views on family relations. Shortly after the introduction of the Family Provision Act in New South Wales in the late 1980's by which time he had retired as the Probate List judge in the Supreme Court and an appeal judge in the Court of Appeal, he wrote the foreword to the next edition of his textbook on succession law. He claimed that Big Brother had really excelled himself with this legislation. He suggested that the legislation was designed to give remedies to mistresses, lovers and other sundry suitors. He also suggested that the Family Provision Act should, more accurately, be entitled the Wasting of Estates By Litigation and Lawyers' Provision Act.
Practitioners in the field of workers' compensation might also recall his views on the complexity of that field and the competence of its practitioners. At that time, the Court of Appeal had to deal with many appeals from poor decisions from the Compensation Court. He told a conference of workers' compensation practitioners in Newcastle that he did not accept the common view that the field was not complex and that it did not require forensic skill. He believed that skill was required but only in the sense that it also required skill to successfully shoot clay pigeons at a country fair.
He was clearly not a diplomat. He was, however, an outstanding lawyer.
I remember when I was a law clerk in the late 1980's reading many of his written advices from the time when he was a young barrister in the late 1940's. The law firm for which I worked started in 1946 when the two original partners came back from World War Two. The firm had kept many of the original files. One of the partners had gone to Sydney University Law School with him in the early 1930's and briefed him often. He generously overlooked his earlier disappointment when Frank Hutley was the last student on the First Class Honours list for that year thereby relegating him to Second Class Honours. I learnt much law in this way in the tunnels under Wynyard railway station where the old files were archived. COMMENT: EMAIL: URL: Perhaps Justinian can call him "Miami" Beach J

It's like the scene in Bohemian Rhapsody where Freddie Mercury says to his lawyer, Jim Beach:

"From now on, I dub thou `Miami'"

Lord Eldon QC writes to the Governor General about Norman O’Bryan “AM” … A reflection on Michael Wyles QC’s letter to the Prime Minister … How much worse things are a month after the letter landed in Schmo’s in-tray … Lygon Street’s Lagoon Dining … Theodora reports 

UPDATE …Shining light of the Yarraside bar ‘n’ grill has withdrawn his defence to overcharging allegations in the Banksia Securities class action … Conceded judgment should be made against him and that it is appropriate he be struck from the jam roll … Fee doctoring on an industrial scale … Transcript … Contradictor’s compilation of misdeeds … Ginger Snatch reports  

The Tamil’s legal affairs section has closed-up shop, but he’s still scribbling for The Australian as a contributor … Lucky us … Paid private tours of the courts and cosy chats with judges organised by Robin and his Merry Men … Rule of law gets a libertarian makeover … Theodora reports 

Northern Territory Supremes shot down by the High & Mighty … Tear gas at Don Dale … What is a prison? … NT Court of Appeal delays locking-in sentencing order in drug case … Too much Vietnamese singing at Palmerston prompts bottle attack … Alan Zheng reports