Thursday 12 April 2007

The end is nigh?

Firstly, I apologise for the introspection of the following post, which will only be of interest to regular Pupilblog readers.

I am currently considering the future of Pupilblog. This has been a recurring theme since I started it only a few months ago. Friends, family and girlfriend think I’m plain bonkers. Someone worked out the identity of The Master through overenthusiastic carelessness on my part (too many details about a case). I had a near miss with other pupils on the compulsory advocacy course. And Geeklawyer seems to have been hauled in front of then narrowly escaped torture by the Bar Council.

This fate seems unlikely (I am neither as rude nor as popular as Geeklawyer, for starters), but I have always worried that my chambers would take less than kindly to this blog, thus bringing my nascent legal career to a swift (but perhaps welcome) end. Yes, I continue to flirt with the idea of career suicide and am still uncertain about what direction I plan to follow in the future.

More to the point, perhaps, I’m a bit fed up with writing about pupillage. When I first started, I had some specific purposes in mind. I feel I have to a significant extent fulfilled those purposes. My pupillage is no longer as excruciating an experience as once was and I no longer have the same need to make light of my situation. A number of people interested in pursuing a career at the Bar have come across this blog and found it helpful, and it would continue to exist in cyberspace for that purpose. And it has been fun until recently. It now feels like something of a chore.

Having gotten into the whole blogging thing, I recently started another blog, and I guess I only have enough enthusiasm for one. Unfortunately, regular Pupilblog readers may be disappointed to find out that the other blog is far less interesting to others than this one has, to my surprise, proven to be. It’s on a very specific area of law. The experiences of Corporate Blawger suggest, unsurprisingly, that the general blogosphere isn’t terribly interested in specialist legal blogs, and I have noted that many purportedly specialist but popular law blogs go way off subject. As I may well end up doing in the future, I guess.

I won’t include the name of the blog here as it may cease to be anonymous in the future and I’d rather this post and blog didn’t pop up on any search engines. It’s not that hard to work it out, though, if you are interested. Yes, I am well aware this is a far from fool proof piece of self protection.

I’m therefore either going to cease posting or, more likely, wind down Pupilblog. My second six starts shortly and I can’t see me having much time on my hands. On the other hand, I would like to record at least the early days of being ‘on my feet’. My Pupilblogger email account will hopefully also continue to function.

Right, I better go and pick some loose leaf filing to get on with…

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

We don't all go off-topic on our specialist legal blogs! (i/e. www.conflictoflaws.net)

I do wander off the beaten path fairly frequently on my general waffle blawg, however.

Sorry to hear about your decision, although I do understand it. Good luck with the rest of the pupillage, and the other blog.

Anonymous said...

Nooo, please don't stop. I've found it invaluable as someone considering pupillage. Also its truly my favourite blog and I really want ot hear your take on second six

Anonymous said...

even if you dont want to continue to update the blog, you could just let it remain like this for benefit of other pupils

Anonymous said...

I'm a massive fan of this blog and dearly hope that you opt to continue with it. Is there not a way you can continue updating it for us, perhaps less frequently and in less detail (so as to avoid the career suicide aspects) but with the same interesting insights into pupillage?

Anonymous said...

Pupilblogger.... Understand - but, if I may say so, your blog is most enjoyable and there are many things you could write about!

Anonymous said...

I assume that was a dig at me! I don't wander of the path - I merely define a very wide path. My blog was initially intended to be an IP one but Ipkitten does it much better than me so mine has developed a more general tone.

The only legitimate reason you've given for giving up is that you find it a chore. But I suspect you'd find members of chambers much more tolerant than you seem to fear. And in any event once you are past pupillage and have a tenancy you get tell everyone who doesn't like it to go fuck themselves. I would but I doubt you'll need to.

I find your blog wonderful - Barybarista is great fiction but I'm looking for a real diary.

lo-fi librarian said...

Bye, bye Pupilblog! Good luck in your new venture, I admit to being too dim to work out what it is, but I'm probably already reading it. I will be waiting on the big farewell post.

Mr Pineapples said...

Ah. So you are wandering back from the Cyber-Ether. That is a shame.

Your blog was truly informative, well written and a tad similar to "My Brief Career" - but with a more positive aspect.

I suspect that you are a little weary of writing it, and not too worried about the powers that be in hauling you over the coals (otherwise you would have yanked it months ago).

In this age of dire bullshit - I sincerely hope that you keep posting - with the comforting knowledge that are providing a very good insight into what a pupillage is all about....for this generation and the next.

Amen - I have spoken

Anonymous said...

testing, testing - Corporate Blawg just left you a comment - did it get through?

Do come to the LawBlog conference still.

Anonymous said...

Clearly not. Here's to trying again...

Corporate Blawg is sad to hear that Pupilblog is departing, but wishes Pupilblog much happiness and fulfillment in his new blog-world.

Corporate Blawg regards the Blawgosphere as an interplanetary starship. The starship picks up travellers who stay until they've had enough. Perhaps they leave because they realise that the starship's trajectory is towards a blackhole where the only survivors exist by denying their intellectual obscurity.

Corporate Blawg's days are probably numbered, and when he departs this starship he hopes he will still carry his rose in a bell-jar. For that, Pupilblog, your blog has left an indelable print in the blawgosphere.

Chow, friend.

All the best

CBUK

Anonymous said...

Have to say I never thought I'd become a blog reader- but yours is great! Especially for those of us tortured souls a few years behind you...

I want to know what happens when you get on your feet!!!!!!!!!