Divorce is never a laughing matter. So Obiter extends heartfelt sympathies to the poor couple pictured (in the foreground), who are in the process of parting company. What’s that you say? This bearded chap and elegantly coiffed blonde lady are not actually a separating couple, but are in fact two southcoast collaborative lawyers in cunning disguise? Well in that case, chortle we may. It seems members of the Bournemouth and Poole Collaborative Family Law Group donned silly wigs and facial hair accessories to demonstrate the benefits of collaborative law to a non-lawyer audience at an event hosted by Bournemouth firm Lester Aldridge. Frank Prior, partner at Southampton firm Paris Smith, and Deborah Leask, partner at Ellis Jones in Bournemouth, played the role of a divorcing couple; while on their left and right, Lester Aldridge head of family Jane Porter, and Ellis Jones partner Sean McNally took on the role of collaborative lawyers – method acting, you could say.