Last week’s Law Society Summer Party at the Wallace Collection in Marylebone took place in what can only be described as London’s grandest conservatory. Any number of the great and good turned up, including Ken Clarke, whose cheerful insouciance amid a throng not universally well disposed to his policies can only be admired. Jack Straw could never make it, Obiter seems to recall, but the present justice secretary is nothing if not clubbable.

The highlight of the evening were the bons mots of outgoing president John Wotton, whose understated manner masks a gentle wit. Welcoming his replacement, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, he observed with mandarin charm: ‘Lucy has been grooming me as her predecessor for the last 12 months.’