The City of London’s boundaries have remained inviolate through invasion, civil war, blitz and the 1972 Local Government Act. Now, says the Law Society, it’s time for change. Obiter hears that the Society is considering extending its City of London constituency to take in outlying firms, including some situated – gasp – south of the river.

Several leading City firms, including Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy and Norton Rose, have abandoned the Square Mile in recent years. In a tradition set by Elizabethan play-houses, bearpits and brothels, they now tend to cluster around the edges. However, Society by-laws allow members to vote only in the ward where they are physically located. The City of London Law Society would like its members back.

David McIntosh, CLLS chair and Law Society Council member for the City of London, says he has asked the Society to address this ‘anomaly’ which ‘needs sorting out’.

The solution is some creative line-drawing, to take in the outliers, so long as local law societies have no objection.

With this in mind, the Law Society’s Council Membership Committee is to draw up a list of firms falling outside the old walls but which would be better suited to the City of London constituency. Inclusion might be based on income, type of work carried out, the number of solicitors at the firm, or all three.

The neighbours seem relaxed about the invasion. David Taylor, South London Law Society honorary secretary, says: ‘Norton Rose [off Tooley Street, in Southwark] would be completely out of synch with the membership of South London Law Society, which is made up of small practices. They would want to stick with the City bods.’

However, another source was worried about the precedent-setting implications of allowing a firm in one ward to vote in another. Can the Society’s electoral politics survive the temptation to gerrymander?