Journalists’ nerves were twitching at the end of 2006 as powerful evidence emerged that lawyers are overrunning the traditional preserves of Fleet Street hacks. No longer satisfied with throwing buckets of cold water over cracking good copy with spoilsport claims that stories might be slightly inaccurate or potentially defamatory, lawyers apparently now want to do the job of journalism itself. A short article in a recent Press Gazette sounds a worrying note as it points to the appointment last summer of Imogen Haddon as The Independent’s managing editor. A solicitor, Ms Haddon was the Indy’s former deputy head of legal, having moved to the paper after spending four exciting years in Allen & Overy’s corporate M&A department. While that was bad enough, the problem was compounded at the end of last year when The Guardian announced that its new readers’ editor is to be the paper’s former head of legal, Siobhain Butterworth, who had a private practice career at London-based Stephens Innocent before moving to Fleet Street. The Press Gazette expresses its ‘alarm’ at this encroachment, which this Gazette feels duty bound to welcome.In what Obiter promises will be the last update of this kind for some time, the latest legal profession link to 'Dr Who' comes from Hampshire firm Scott Bailey Solicitors & Mediators, which boasts a dalek, pictured right, among its staff. 'Whilst currently not holding a practising certificate,' a missive from the firm informs us, 'Derek the dalek shares an office with residential conveyancing solicitor James Burford and one day aspires to be a partner, end world poverty or alternatively just exterminate all life forms (and estate agents) and conquer the known universe. James holds similar ambitions.' Worryingly, the Dalek appears to have adopted Reading FC, but could have been some use last weekend during the touchline fracas that broke out during the game against Sheffield United.


Meanwhile, carrying on the link to 'Doctor Who' exhibitions established by London solicitor Richard Howard (see [2007] Gazette, 11 January, 12), Jeremy Sampson - general counsel at Taylor Woodrow - has been in touch to recall that his father, Terry, used to work at the BBC and was responsible for the original exhibitions dating back to the 1980s at Longleat House and Blackpool. Mr Sampson senior gets a mention in Tom Baker's autobiography, while the fourth Doctor also visited and was apparently the star attraction at the Chalfont St Giles village show. More excitingly still, Mr Sampson even once brought home the (third) Doctor's beloved car, Bessie.



Finally, we come to Sue Stapely, the solicitor turned grande dame of the legal PR world. In a previous life, La Stapely was a production assistant on two series of the original 'Doctor Who', one with second Doctor Patrick Troughton, and the other with his successor, Jon Pertwee. 'I recall vividly Alpha Centauri and a range of rather louche monsters and some fairly dodgy special effects, as well as rather too much time spent in the cold water tank in Ealing Studios filming fight sequences,' she tells Obiter.