Lawyers Against LonelinessWelcome to the second Law Against Loneliness! THANK YOU to everyone who emailed us with contributions – it was overwhelming but we still want more!

Details of how to contribute are at the bottom of the page and everyone from the profession is welcome to participate, not just lawyers.

World Cup of Law Firms

‘Do a World Cup of Law Firms’, our editor WhatsApped on Sunday afternoon. Look, these are desperate times. Will Burges Salmon or Troutman Sanders emerge from the Group of Fish? Will Allen (& Overy) beat Bryan (Cave Leighton Paisner) in the ‘your-dad’s-name’ derby?  Get voting in the first round on Twitter. 

Video of the day

Herbert Smith Freehills partner Lewis McDonald is posting one video a day to raise money for NHS staff and volunteers.

Quiz of the day

Today’s quiz comes courtesy of 11KBW.

Theme: They Saw the Light: All these people have studied law or qualified as lawyers, but gone on to have success in other areas.

  1. This writer, known for his short stories such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, passed the New York Bar in 1806.
  2. This actor and comedian graduated with a degree in law having studied at Downing College, Cambridge where he was also a member of the Footlights. After graduation, he worked at the BBC and also for Newsweek where he met the first of three blonde American wives.
  3. This actor and so-called heartthrob gained an LLB from Glasgow University in 1992 and spent a year as a trainee solicitor before moving to London. He later moved to Hollywood where he landed roles such as Lara Croft’s ex-boyfriend, the chieftain of a Viking tribe, and King Leonidas.
  4. This TV star graduated with a JD from Northwestern University in 1968. While best known for his eponymous “chat show”, he also practised law and was briefly Mayor of Cincinnati in 1977.
  5. This painter passed the Paris bar with distinction in 1888 despite finding it, in his words, “tedious”. Much to his father’s displeasure, he gave up the law to pursue his love of art, stating later that “from the moment I held the box of colours in my hands, I knew this was my life”
  6. This abstract artist studied law in Moscow before enrolling in the Munich Academy in 1896 to pursue his artistic career.
  7. This singer, who has performed at venues as varied as La Scala, the Bellagio hotel in Vegas, and the King Power Stadium in Leicester, graduated with a law degree from the University of Pisa.
  8. This singer graduated with a law degree from a university in Madrid. He went on to become the most successful singer in Spain, with 23 million records sold. His son, meanwhile, has sold over 169 million records worldwide.
  9. This author began to study law to please his father, but quickly gave up to pursue a career in writing. He went on to be described by the President of Colombia as “the greatest Colombian who ever lived”.
  10. This Championship League football manager graduated with a degree in law from Split Law Faculty.

Answers tomorrow. We sadly don’t have the time to mark entries or the resources to offer BIG CASH PRIZES so you’ll just have to boast about your scores on Twitter. #LawAgainstLoneliness

Dog of the day

Andrew Spink QC of Outer Temple Chambers says: “I have been trying to do my little bit to help keep members of my chambers and our amazing team of hard working staff smiling with occasional updates, pictures and videos of the 11 Labrador Retriever puppies that were delivered by my family black lab Ada a week ago today, just before we went into lockdown. The father is Oswald, a magnificent golden retriever. The blond puppy lying on his back in the middle of the photo (but not in the video) is nicknamed Boris!”

Boris the dog

 

Recommended reading

Kids’ challenge

We still want pictures from your children of you working from home.

The Lawyer Listens

With the majority of the legal market working from home, The Lawyer is putting together a playlist of songs to listen to while working from the living room or kitchen. Today’s track comes from Stewarts associate Zara Okereafor.

Sunday Best by The Surfaces

Texas based duo “The Surfaces” are an up and coming music group that formed in 2017 producing non-stop feel good tunes with a chill yet upbeat vibe. Their music exists to spread love and positivity across the world.

The music video for “Sunday Best” shows the duo break up a mundane 9-5 office day and replace it with joy, dancing, and positive vibes. In an interview they explain their aim was to demonstrate that “Every day can be a better day despite the challenge. We are all going to have bad things happen to us… but we don’t have to be victims to our situations. Wear joy like armor. Be the color in this grey world.” With our world as it is today, one can’t argue with that outlook! Hit play, turn it up, and dance like no one is watching (because, fortunately for us all right now – they’re not).

100% talent at its purest, their albums can be played non-stop to the intentional listener or background music to almost anything – working from home, chilling, exercising, cooking, etc.

Got a track you want to recommend? Email us here, including 100 words on the song in the style of today’s article.

How to get involved

Anyone in the legal sector is welcome to contribute to any of the sections of Law Against Loneliness.

We want videos, photos, art, quizzes, music, recipes, dogs – and clever ideas for new daily features we haven’t thought of. Creativity is encouraged.

Contributions can be law or mental heath/wellbeing-related, but they don’t have to be: the main requirement is they should distract and uplift people as they take five minutes out of their day.

All contributions can be emailed to us here – thank you!

What we don’t want is lengthy text submissions, as there isn’t space to publish them in this article (although links to interesting articles published elsewhere are welcome). We also don’t want stuff that is too self- or firm-promotional, though we’re not averse to plugging the occasional good cause.