I have only just seen a set of short videos which His Honour Judge Simon Brown QC and I made at the Masters Conference last October in Washington. They were made by LegalQB and involved a proper studio with lighting and a backdrop.

I link to the clips with some diffidence, not because I am unhappy with their message, but because (like many people) I do not particularly like seeing myself on video. My default look is serious and this, coupled with a dark suit and dark tie (I can see why media performers take advice on things like this) makes me look like an up-market but rather disdainful funeral director. The downside of a commitment to take any reasonable platform going is that I cannot choose my media, and if someone asks me to do a video in five minutes’ time, I generally I do it.

The star guest was supposed to be Simon Brown who had, only the week before, delivered the judgment in Earles v Barclays Bank which was the only important e-Disclosure decision made in England & Wales in 2009. My role (so far as I was concerned) was merely to introduce the judge and to describe briefly the differences between the US and UK disclosure regimes.

Unfortunately, although my recollection is that Simon Brown said quite a lot about Earles, that has not made it through to the final cut. We have me as the warm-up act, right down to my turning to Simon Brown and inviting him to tell us about his judgment. Then we cut to something else.

That can’t be helped and I don’t blame the editors. Nor do I intend to start imposing editorial control – the whole point of video is that it is instant and life is too short to fine-tune everything. I might wear a brighter tie next time though.

Home