On Friday Kings held a long-planned welcome party for new members of chambers. As it turned out this was a party with a difference…
We wanted to welcome new (or newish) members Gerard McDermott QC, Gordon Exall, Elliot Kay, and Jasmine Chan,
ZOOMING IN ON SKILLS
Of course, in this day and age, this meant everyone had a chance to show off their skills with zoom and zoom backgrounds.
- Several members were skiing.
- A few were in a pub.
- (A word of warning one member had a pub as their general background, they couldn’t work out how to change it and had court hearings coming up.)
- One was outside Downing Street for a while, then switching to being outside chambers.
- As you can see someone assumed there was a dress code.
THINGS THAT WE LEARNT
Since children were allowed to attend/came on screen. We had the opportunity to (gently) question them on “what do you think of your new teachers” – “not very good” was the answer, but they didn’t want them sacking just yet.
We saw a video of a member who had decided to take up cycling and, within seconds, came off the bike.
A useful cooking demonstration – cooking in social isolation.
ON A SERIOUS NOTE
At a time of social isolation social interaction, albeit in a remote form, is important for everyone. It gave people an opportunity to exchange stories, swap ideas (how to change your zoom background turned out to be important), practice communicating remotely and just general keeping in touch.
A few links to help with social isolation.
- Mind Coronavirus and your wellbeing
- The Independent – CORONAVIRUS: HOW TO MANAGE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH DURING SELF-ISOLATION
- nature Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak
- Law Society of Scotland Wellbeing during the coronavirus outbreak.
CORONAVIRUS: GUIDANCE FOR LAWYERS AND BUSINESSES 