Lunatic Comments on the Today Programme

One in an ongoing series

[Discussing the 80th birthday of Ariel Sharon, who has now been in a coma for two years] Interviewer: "So, does he still exert any influence in Israel?"

Smugness

People become lawyers, and particularly barristers or litigation orientated solicitors, for a wide variety of reasons, including many lofty and principled ones. However, I have to confess that as far as I'm concerned, the sheer sensation of winning a fairly big and hard fought case that might well have gone the other way and then hammering the opposition on costs when your opponent was assuming they were actually going to get their costs even if we won, and then, frankly, looking at the draft invoice for your brief fee and refreshers before it goes out, is pretty hard to beat.

I hasten to add that I do have lofty and noble principles as well. It's just I quite like winning, and also being paid...