Conscious that I had not blogged in an eternity, I almost sat down the other day to write an entry entitled “On redundancy”. This year, countless professionals have been shipped out, and the City of London in particular has been hit quite hard. One of my bestest friends was made redundant a few months ago and only a week ago another person from my small team of environmental law specialists was let-go. It is an appalling state of affairs to see perfectly qualified, intelligent human beings being whisked out of their offices with hardly an opportunity to pick up their belongings. And where do you go? At least in law, very, very FEW firms are hiring unless you happen to be an employment or insolvency lawyer. This is the first recession I have been through in my professional life and it has not been pleasant at all. I mean, were I to be made redundant I would probably rejoice in the pay-out, but would be incomprehensibly inconvenienced with losing my right to remain in the UK! (I have begun the process to now obtain a visa which is not contingent on my place of work which thankfully, it seems I qualify for).
But, I did not want to write a down-in-the-dumps entry dedicated to the unfortunate circumstances of many of those around me. Partly because I have to believe redundancy is a blessing in disguise and those left out in the cold now, will eventually move onto bigger and greater things. My friend being a good example; soon to leave for Africa to work as principal environmental counsel at a global financial institution.
What I do want to do, however, is briefly reflect on how fantastic a year 2008 has been on balance (This is important as I will otherwise forget!). It was made fantastic first and foremost by the friends I have made and the friendships that have grown and blossomed. It was made awesome by the blokes I met through hockey and flying to Barcelona to compete with them. The travel I have managed to accomplish this year, as last year, has been incredibly satisfying and rewarding. Barcelona (twice), Oslo, Cologne, Los Angeles, New York and of course Sydney to visit mum, dad and my closest friends. I’ve seen Elton John live at the O2 and an old high school friend play the lead role in a West-End musical. I went to Disneyland for the first time (and unbeknownst to my friend D, couldn’t help but suspire uncontrollably and well up under my sunglasses when Mickey came out twirling a baton before a grand brass band *just* as we entered the park!). I flew first class for the first time and drove on the wrong side of the road for the first time from Malibu to LA proper… I’ve converted to macs, and iPods and feel they really add value by helping me get stuff done… (and they are so pretty
– It really has been a year of firsts for me.
Professionally also, I’ve furthered my specialisation into climate change and carbon trading. I’ve worked on multi-jurisdictional deals on a mixture of international regulatory matters (like the commercial aspects of the Kyoto Protocol and renewable energy projects) and other more plain vanilla environmental legal matters but which have been on the whole thoroughly interesting and, well quite frankly, exactly what I signed up for when I decided to specialise into this quirky field almost 6 years ago now!
I have certain plans for next year such as strengthening friendships even more (sooo important in my life at this loyte stoyge), learning to play the drums (yep! – wheels already in motion on that one), travel travel travel (Copenhagen and French Alps already on the agenda) and of course seeing my folks again who I miss dearly. I also need to make sure I lead a healthier lifestyle which will include going to bed *much* earlier of a night time and actually using that gym membership as opposed to whining about the monthly fee that comes out of my pay!
On a macro level, the year has been very down-beat. However, looking into the specifics one realises that everyone is in the same boat and its simply a matter of survival. I can think of no better way of surviving than focusing *no matter what* (and perhaps myopically) on the opportunities the year has provided, and anticipating those which the next will invariably bring.
Happy Christmas and all that!
JC :0)
Posted by se1joe 
Posted by se1joe
Posted by se1joe 


