Save the Date- Thursday 26 February 2009 5pm

The next SOLO group meeting will take place in the Rotunda room of the old patent office in London pictured to the right (the Rotunda is at the top of the stairs). The street address is 25 Southampton buildings and the nearest tube station is Chancery Lane.
The main attraction is a presentation from company name adjudicator Judi Pike - famous for having the honour of deciding the first case before the Company Names Tribunal. For those who want to do some research on why Coke Cola Ltd has now become 0651 9140 Ltd, I have loaded the good bits of the file into our Google Group. We look forward to a highly interactive discussion.

However, the meeting will begin with a networking session at which you will be able to find out more about

• Westlaw IP - our representatives Shakira Ali has agreed to come


• Transglobal Payment Solutions Ian Wheeler will be on hand to explain the delights of paying and receiving foreign currency


• Manged and Virtual office services offered by Executive Offices who now run the old patent office building


• MARCO - IP management software

What's more the meeting is free to attend. Please email me to ensure you get a cup of tea. The meeting will adjourn to a local hostelry to continue the debate with a little help from our Transglobal Sponsor. Be there

Welcome to the New Wave of Solos

Anna Rabin, a real rather than intellectual property expert has written a great article for The Lawyer about her recent experiences of being thrown into the Solo world. She is a fast mover and has already hung up her shingle on the web. As with all Lawyer articles you can comment on her article and see what others have said. They get much better comments than we do but then they sometimes quote them in their print media which maybe acts as encouragement.

Career-enhancing?

I've just been asked by a bright young qualifying solicitor, bilingual in two major European languages and with a very good law degree from a leading university, if the College of Law's LLM in Professional Legal Practice is as truly career-enhancing as the course's website appears to portray it.

My own impression is that neither law firms nor clients are particularly impressed by any LLMs. This impression is based partly on the vast number of references I have penned for apparently good students who read specialist LLMs with an intellectual property or Information Technology bias, but who had little luck in terms of career advancement; it's also partly based on my observation that, on the whole, my former students who have done best are those with the best portfolio of personal skills (languages, literacy, diligence, ability to work with others) rather than those with the best paper qualifications. I have no familiarity with the College of Law LLM in Professional Legal Practice, though, and don't want to prejudge it.

Any comments? If so, can they be delivered with great expedition? The closing date for applications is this coming Monday ...

Fancy a drink?

Visiting US sole practitioner, attorney, IP enthusiast and visionary Cathy Gellis is visiting London at the moment. If you'd like to say hello to her, she'll be at The Old Nick this evening, Thursday 8 (oops 15 was a mistake sorry) January, from 5.00pm to 7.00pm. Just turn up and say hi: it's a small pub and you'll soon spot the American accent!