Tyke that: it has turned into one of the great law firm marketing investments of all time. Last May, Sheffield firm Wake Smith (now Wake Smith & Tofields) signed up to be the kit sponsor of Championship football club Barnsley for the 2007/08 season. The exposure it received following the team's amazing victory at Liverpool in the last round of the FA Cup was pretty good, but last Saturday the firm enjoyed two hours of free prime-time advertising on BBC1, with lots more to follow after the Tykes somehow beat holders Chelsea to make it to the semi-final.


Partner Duncan Shepherd - who by no particular coincidence is the son of the club's chairman and until recently was a director himself - confides to Obiter that a minority of partners did question the decision to sponsor Barnsley (which is, naturally, a client). 'Some of them were saying, tongue in cheek, that it would be a good deal if they got to the cup final.' Nobody is questioning it now, however. Mr Shepherd says contacts and clients from around the world have been in touch to comment on the firm's new-found fame, especially those, we'd wager, who were wondering if their all-time favourite practice (honest) had a spare ticket or two. The firm took some clients to Anfield, entertained more at Oakwell on Saturday, and will be taking still more to the national stadium. It will be nice to see clients wanting to suck up to a law firm for once, rather than the other way round.



'Wake Smith are on their way to Wembley,' Mr Shepherd tells us proudly. By 'eck. It's not many law firms can say that.