Daily Diary

Between Iraq and a hard place

Posted 11/04/2008 by The Daily Diary

Some people get all the luck. While The Diary has been glued to its news-pipe keeping tabs on promotions season, crack legal hack Ben Hallman – of Legal Week’s allegiance-swearing, apple pie-eating Yankee cousin The American Lawyer – has been living it up in the Green Zone of Baghdad (that’s the bit where you probably won’t get shot at but might well get mortared).

Hallman, whose regular blog is available on legalweek.com’s own Legal Village, is reporting on the ongoing efforts to resurrect Iraq’s civil justice system – about as close to the days of the Wild West as any commercial lawyer is likely to get.

Early entries follow Hallman buying his own flak jacket and helmet – precautions The Diary has been forced to take before meeting certain City partners – and deploying bang in the middle of the most volatile ‘emerging market’ in the business.

The unit he is embedded with is apparently desperate for US-qualified lawyers as part of a legal ‘surge’ mirroring the military one – and rule of law project chief Wilson Myers says “interpersonal skills are more important than work experience”.

So there you have it – if you’ve got the client-bonding skills to charm the ammo from an AK-47 at a hundred paces, fortune and glory await at www.usajobs.com.