Despite its reputation as a profession of bon vivants, the legal world figures only lightly in the Cabinet Office’s ‘trough list’ of hospitality enjoyed (or endured) by senior civil servants. In contrast to their counterparts in IT and consultancy businesses – not to mention the arms trade – legal firms seem to show little interest in oiling the wheels of Whitehall.

According to the list, Clifford Chance managed to get the chief executive of UK Trade & Investment to a reception and private viewing; the Prime Minister’s adviser on international economic affairs was apparently at the same bash. The Treasury Solicitor’s head of litigation appears to have graced the firm’s litigation partners reception.

A senior bod at the Communities and Local Government department reports attending the Chelsea Flower Show as a guest of Trowers & Hamlin, but you’d have thought the director general, housing and planning, would attend as part of their duties anyway.

DLA’s guests include the director of human resources at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (lunch) and the former director general of NHS IT (dinner).

As you’d expect, most lawyer-mandarin glass-clinking seems to involve the Ministry of Justice. The head of the legal and judicial services group declares two lunches and two dinners at the Law Society as well as the annual dinner at the Association of District Judges.

Likewise, the top bods at the Office of the Treasury Solicitor seem to be allowed out on occasion: Linklaters, Nabarro and Pinsent Masons and several barristers’ chambers are on the list. Intriguingly, the director of the Office for National Statistics reports attending a concert as the guest of Pinsent Masons. And the head of business tax at HMRC sat down to three meals with the US firm Steptoe & Johnson – two lunches and a ‘supper’ (cocoa and egg on toast?).

Overall, though, a poor performance. As an inveterate corporate trougher himself, Obiter can’t believe the invitations aren’t going out. You’re obviously all far too busy.