Law Against Loneliness: 16 November

The Lawyer Shopping Channel

Moving away from the food shops of past days, Charles Elderton of Motus Legal Recruitment recommends Vinegar Hill. “Lots of Christmas gifts, stocking fillers, as well as home & garden, fashion and wellness ideas. I mention them because my wife started working for them part-time last month at their shop in Clifton, Bristol. They are a great bunch and she has been furloughed while they are sadly closed during the second lockdown.”

Meanwhile, if you’re into nice coffee, beer or cider, you should take a look at Gander Market, a new online store where you can buy direct from lots of different independent drinks makers.

Previously: Rennet & Rind | Cocoa May

Poll of the Day

Dog of the Day

We’ve only met S Chelvan of No 5 Chambers once, at the Bar Pro Bono Awards a few years back, but he was jolly nice and friendly which is why we feel vaguely guilty for realising he sent pictures of his dogs Veritas and Nomos to The Lawyer‘s Twitter DMs back in May and we forgot about them. Here they are now, and they have their own Twitter account at @dogsoflaw.

The Lawyer Reads

Amity and Prosperity

In the non-fiction book Amity and Prosperity, New Yorker staff writer Eliza Griswold reports on her experience shadowing Pennsylvania local nurse Stacey Haney and her two kids for seven years as they faced the consequences of the fracking boom in the town of Amity, where natural gas extraction by drilling polluted water and air and sickened entire communities.

The mysterious illness affecting herself and her loved ones pushes Haney to embark on a David vs Goliath legal battle against the Texas company that has promised her neighbors’ profitable natural gas leases, without disclosing the frightening consequences.

Any sofa-bound lawyer enjoying a domestic rainy weekend will appreciate the careful plotting in the build-up of the legal case by attorneys John and Kendra Smith. The author, a journalist who previously translated folk poems of Afghan women, brings the flair of a poet in her descriptions of the Haney’s family troubles, which come alive in the smallest details: the unrelenting health deterioration of her son, who misses out on the best of his youth while stuck at home; Haney’s meticulous gathering of damning evidence in a diary; and the gradual exposure of the shortcomings of the US’ Environmental Protection Agency.

Powered by scrupulous research and firsthand observation, the book grapples with themes that are so vital and controversial in our current politics: the sustainability risks sparked by dangerous energy sourcing systems; the suffering of a population annihilated by corporate decisions; and the raging cry of those individuals who feel they have been left behind by their own government.

Eliza Griswold, ‘Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America’, Wildfire, 2018.