“The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone…”

- The Code of the Woosters

En passant, but if PG Wodehouse has taught us anything, it’s that we should be suspicious of any group which insists on wearing a uniform:

Hugely proud of Jason Brickhill for his work - anyone who doubts the efficacy of deploying IHRL in domestic litigation should take a look at paragraphs 20 to 23.

"Human dignity has no nationality. The fact that an individual is a non-citizen or undocumented does not mean that her / his basic human rights can be violated without consequences. That flies in the face of the founding provisions and values of our Constitution".

The judgment of Adams J in Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia and Others v Operation Dudula and Others (2023/044685) [2025] ZAGPJHC 1102 is a recent classic of the genre, and deserves to be read far beyond SA: www.saflii.org/cgi-bin/disp...

Many thanks to my instructing solicitors and opponents for saying kind words about me, and for Chambers and Partners for bumping me up to Band 4 in crime for 2026! Special thanks go to my fantastic clerking team, not least David Landa and Lauren Carter.

The two books I recommended were:

(1) Vicarious Trauma in the Legal Profession, by Fleck and Francis (lnkd.in/eMXZgxut); and

(2) Graphic, by Alexa Koenig and Andrea Lampros (lnkd.in/e7WVfY97).

Special thanks to Emma Fielding and Aaron Dolan for their organising prowess (and for inexplicably elevating me to KC on my name badge!).

…Green, Lady Justice Whipple, The Hon. Mrs Justice Maura McGowan, HHJ Dean, HHJ Nott, HHJ Lucas KC, Heidi Stonecliffe KC, Sarah Clarke KC, Claire Davies KC, Ben Aina KC, Samuel Skinner KC, and Sally Hobson.

It’s an expensive time of year…!

Good to be here, in such esteemed company! I can offer nothing more than blood, sweat and tears. And cat photos. And the odd meme. And the usual self-congratulatory twaddle which spills over from LinkedIn.

Wotcha!