The age of the alternative business structure is nearly upon us. In this utopia, lawyers and accountants will work in perfect harmony to provide a seamless client service. That’s the theory, at any rate. But, as one source who used to work for Garretts, once the law firm arm of former accountancy giant Arthur Andersen, told Obiter recently, solicitors and beancounters are very different beasts. For one thing, accountants are much more discreet. ‘When partners in an accountancy firm fall out, you never hear about it,’ he said. ‘But when lawyers fall out it’s all over the internet in minutes.’ He added: ‘If you ask an accountant to tell you about their competition, they will say, "Oh, I don’t really want to talk about our competitors". If you ask a lawyer, they will immediately give you chapter and verse on how absolutely rubbish their rivals are.’ There’s more than a grain of truth in that. Each profession has a reputation for certain things – accountants for being the person you would avoid sitting next to at a dinner party (on account of conversation rather than personal hygiene, Obiter stresses; the two professions are equally well-groomed), and lawyers for rather enjoying the sound of their own voice. Obiter’s source recalls one incident at his previous employer that caused much merriment among the accountants. A lawyer was giving a presentation about the growth of Garretts. Seconds into the talk, the accountants began to chuckle, and the perplexed solicitor couldn’t fathom why. Faced with a slide showing a set of figures, they had done what comes naturally and totted them up. And of course they didn’t add up at all. That’s the other thing lawyers have a reputation for among their accounting brethren – not being terribly good at maths.