Where did the silly season go? Nobody can complain that this summer has been dull news-wise - if anything, it has been too exciting. In Germany, they had the story of Yvonne, the missing cow, as if the front pages needed filling. But here one earth-shattering development has succeeded another with breathless speed. Through long years of necessity, I always look out for the role of lawyers, and they have not failed me this summer. The highlights follow in no particular order.

The Gazette covered the story of a Tottenham law firm’s near-escape in the riots, with most files fortunately remaining intact. One of the online commentators below the story - don’t read them all unless you want to excite yourself - pointed out that lawyers have a duty to have a disaster recovery plan in place.

This is under Rule 5.01 (k) which states that you must make arrangement for the following for your practice: ‘the continuation of the practice of the firm in the event of absences and emergencies, with the minimum interruption to clients' business’. I was away at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting at the time, and could not help noticing that the ABA has just published Surviving a Disaster, A Lawyer’s Guide to Disaster Planning, which has very useful guidance to firms about how to establish such a plan.

Then there were the juicy revelations from the News of the World phone-hacking saga. The role of Harbottle & Lewis was an interesting public lesson in the core duties of lawyers in a way that no amount of dry lecturing or paid publicity could convey.

We always wish that members of the public understood more about lawyers’ work, and here was a real-life example, provided that you could keep up with the complications – the obligation of the duty of confidentiality, unable to be broken without the client’s consent, and then the explanation of the narrow scope of the mandate, followed by a peep into what £10,000 can and cannot buy. We wait with bated breath to see whether BCL Burton Copeland, who have also acted for News International, are released from their own duty to the company.

For the horrors of the anti-Gaddafi war in Libya, we read about the Essex law firm of Edwards Duthie, which represents (or maybe that should be represented) Colonel Gaddafi’s government and filed cases for trespass in respect of the London Embassy against diplomats from the National Transitional Council, seeking repossession.

Again, this was a useful public lesson about another core legal duty of lawyers, to offer representation to anyone, including those who attract opprobrium. Of course, we will never know whether the former government paid its legal fees in advance.

Speaking of attracting opprobrium - although there the comparison ceases - and moving on to the financial crisis, Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs was reported as having hired a lawyer, which caused the firm to suffer a near 5% drop in its share price. In itself, that is not good news for lawyers. We want share prices to rise when a lawyer is hired.

But this was no ordinary lawyer. We were told that he has acted for defendants in the Enron and WorldCom cases, and for Roman Polanski. It was not surprising, therefore, that investors feared the worst, with the bank facing continuing investigations into its conduct during the financial crisis.

I prefer quiet summers. I live in the eurozone, and it has not been fun to see its future totter. I am hoping for a belated silly season.