Daily Diary

Surfin' DLA at the great barrister reef

Posted 8/01/2007 by legalweekblogs.com SU

With its thousands-strong cast of colourful characters, there is no shortage of distinctive voices at the Bar - albeit most of them sharing the same Harrovian elocution and more than a hint of the Home Counties.

One of the more unique voices is that of One Temple Gardens personal injury specialist and chronicler of our times Tim Kevan, prolific author and mastermind behind The Barrister Blog, which you can find here.

Kevan's online journal offers an unlikely but strangely captivating blend of legal analysis and quasi-philosophical musings on his other great passion (along with getting crocked sportsmen a contribution to their Tubigrip) - surfing.

Certainly there are few other places where an in-depth discussion of class in the Bar's esoteric clerking system appears side by side with deeply personal jottings on the "timelessness" and "otherworldliness" of the wave-chasing existence.

In a post co-authored by his magnificently-named fiancé, Dr Michelle Tempest (who The Diary had previously thought was the love-interest in a Bond movie), Kevan outlines how surfing can broaden the mind and, by extension, improve advocacy. The essay will appear as part of the duo's forthcoming opus, 'Why Lawyers Should Surf'.

Noble stuff indeed, although the title does rather call to mind the old joke that begins 'What do you call 4,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?'.