Clients may have a habit of thinking their business must be dealt with as a matter of life and death but, just occasionally, they do have a point. A client dinner attended by quick-thinking solicitor Richard Taylor, an intellectual property partner at DLA Piper, is a prime example of how solicitors can also be action heros. Taylor informs us that, while at a dinner hosted by client The Coal Authority, in the plush surroundings of the Manchester Midland Hotel, one of the executives at his table began to choke. As Taylor describes it: ‘[He] can't speak, can't breathe, but starts turning purple, eyes popping, thumping [the] table for attention. Cue general mayhem and cries for an ambulance – but not enough time. The client starts for the door and bursts out of the dining room. Just as he is collapsing to his knees – tada! – your friendly neighbourhood solicitor (me) appears behind and calmly executes the Heimlich Manoeuvre – reach around the choking person, clasp your fists into their diaphragm, and pull up hard, to use the residue of air in the lungs to blow out the blockage. The client is jerked into the air (I am rather taller than him) – and the blockage flies out of his throat and across the corridor. The client breathes. Cue applause, back slapping and general appreciation of noble solicitor.’

Indeed. As the Law Society’s slogan goes, ‘my hero, my solicitor’. But Obiter suspects Taylor may not be the only lawyer out there to have saved a client’s life in the literal sense. Anyone with a similar tale of courage should contact obiter@lawsociety.org.uk.