Victorian judge agrees to handover the gate key … Easement hijinks at the Vic Supremes … Ingress and egress restored to judge’s South Yarra neighbours … Hilary ploughs ahead with her holiday judgment-writing in Canberra … Latest instructions on wigs and robes … Vasta Watch – a fresh bulletin … Bookshelves Brandis bounces back to town … Theodora reports 

The price of panic … Stress caught a young lawyer unawares … An innocent mistake compounded by forgery … Bad look for the legal business … Tears at work … Depression and drinking … Time in the wilderness for “self-reflection” … Janek Drevikovsky reports from the Bureau de Spank

Important Bills passed by NSW parliament go mouldy on the shelf awaiting proclamation … Modern Slavery Act and Surveillance Devices amendments … Where are they? … Revisions and refinements … Government runs cold and warmish on data breaches … Polly Peck reports from Macquarie Street’s bear pit 

UPDATE … Solicitor ordered to pay court costs personally, within in 60 days … It took over three years for him to fork-up … Unacceptable delays … Far-fetched excuses and extensions of time … Finding of professional misconduct … Disgraceful … Other unattractive priors 

HWL Ebsworth lawyer told not to bite the hand that feeds the firm … The turbulent Dr Rumble’s criticism of his client … Bad for business … Grounds for termination … Managing partner Martinez intolerant of insubordination … Christmas party snub … No presents … Stephen Murray reports

High Court puts the lid on the honey pot … Common law revised … Solicitors and barristers no longer able to charge costs when acting for themselves … Same principle applies for litigants in person … Chorley exception was a “privilege” and an affront to equality before the law … Stinging Nettle … Stephen Murray reports 

Yarraside spankings … The wrong disciplinary body has been doling out punishment to bad lawyers … Hundred of cases that were legal nullities have to be rescued by retrospective legislation … For four years one paid attention to the defect … Charter of Rights sent packing … Janek Drevikovsky reports 

Where’s our Magnitsky Act? … An effective way of dealing with corrupt individuals who violate human rights … Lapsed Bill in the Commonwealth parliament … Giving human rights an effective weapon … The legacy of Russia’s abuse of power and the calculated killing of state enemies … Greg Hogan reviews the NSW Law Society forum on the shape of a local Magnitsky law