20 Years of Queen's Counsel - and a new book!

Happy Birthday to us! Queen's Counsel will be 20 years old on Thursday. The first strip ran in the law pages of The Times on October 3, 1993. Back then, The Times was pretty much compulsory reading for everyone in the legal profession.

At pupillage interviews, the question "what newspaper do you read?" had only one serious answer - because The Times was the only paper that covered legal issues with any seriousness. 12-16 pages of law coverage was supported by plenty of advertising from barrister's chambers and law firms - mainly job vacancies. So why are the law pages now only one or two pages? The answer is - the internet.

Advertising has fled traditional newsprint and moved online. Newspapers struggle with declining circulation and wobbly ad revenues. Still, despite it all, The Times soldiers on, and whenever I buy it I am reminded of the old-fashioned pleasures of a newspaper. One can browse, flip pages, go back and forth....and it all works even if your web connection is down. So reliable!

So cast your mind back 20 years and remember a world before bandwidth, when newsprint was all their was. And don't forget to take a peek at the 20th anniversary collection of Queen's Counsel cartoons - our best ever.