There is an awful lot of gloom around and, without wishing to downplay the seriousness of what is going on both on the world stage and at home, here are some positive thoughts to keep you going through February:
- Here in the UK, we are enormously fortunate to live in a society governed by the rule of law. It is imperative we do all we can to protect this. If you haven’t read Jonathan Sumption’s Reith lectures, I urge you to do so.
- We work in the legal world for a lot of different reasons. However, I would hope that one of those reasons is that this is an environment which we believe has value, that can work for the good of others.
- Opportunities exist where there are threats or, to put it less dramatically, challenges. No better illustration of this has been the pandemic which has changed how we all do business and kickstarted many initiatives which would otherwise not yet have come to the fore.
- Automation could enhance our working practices. It should not simply be seen as a means of reducing cost though but rather a way of releasing people to operate more effectively and at a higher level. And there is no point in pretending it isn’t coming. All the buzz about ChatGBT is another illustration of this. (And a plug here for a different set of Reith lectures – “Living with Automation” from 2021).
- The economy does not seem to be doing quite as badly as expected.
- The snowdrops are starting to come out. There is always hope.