While the so-called Steel Magnolia, Fiona Shackleton, gets to grips with Sir Paul McCartney's divorce, she leaves a former university colleague sadly in her wake. Helen Broughton, president of Liverpool Law Society, used her column in the society's monthly newsletter to express her disappointment (somewhat tongue in cheek) that Sir Paul had chosen to instruct a London solicitor instead of herself. 'I was sure he would want Liverpool solicitors to do the job for him. Just think of the glamour, publicity and the opportunity to wear all those new suits and dresses,' she wrote. Ms Broughton went on to recall that she read law at Exeter University on the same course as Ms Shackleton. 'If the newspaper reports are accurate,' Ms Broughton observes, 'I got the better degree.' If only Sir Paul knew.