Despite dismal talk of dawn raids from the European Commission, and in-house lawyers finding themselves in the fingerprint queue along with drug dealers and rapists, some delegates were still happy to crack a few jokes at the International Bar Association (IBA)'s corporate counsel conference in Amsterdam. Except that, with the kind of extreme caution that should make the rest of the profession proud, most of them came with a disclaimer that the gag actually belonged to someone else. Eversheds partner Jonathan Armstrong told what he claimed to be conference chairman Jan Eijsbouts' favourite joke. Mr Eijsbouts had apparently promised to tell it (again) from the podium, but must have decided against, possibly on scanning the audience. Three lawyers are in conference, the joke goes, one French, one German, and one English. 'Just take the word "horse", for example', the English City lawyer says. 'In German you call it a Pferd, in France you call it a cheval. But in England we call it a horse, because that's what it is.' Quite right too.