Grumbling at the chore of CPD? Spare a thought for our colleagues in the Gobi desert. In the footsteps of, if not Marco Polo, then at least Clyde & Co, Obiter popped along to a breakfast seminar organised by the Law Society’s international division on new markets in Mongolia.

What, you didn’t know that Mongolia is the world’s fastest growing economy? Stephen Tricks, consultant at Clyde & Co, enthused about the prospects – and the need to bear in mind the sensibilities of a very new democracy, especially when it comes to relationships with neighbouring superpowers.

His Mongolian colleague Altansuvd Brewin mentioned another complication: under recent legislation every lawyer in the country has to apply to become a member of a new lawyers’ association. The new law is supposed to clarify procedures by abolishing the separate status of advocate, Brewin explained. However, it is all very grey, she said: ‘I think it was drafted by someone who does not understand the difference between barristers and solicitors.’

How very different from the home life of our own dear regulators in England and Wales.