When I first came to France more than 20 years ago, I was appalled at the standard of dress of the lawyers attending court in Nice.

Beneath their gowns, some wore shorts, open-neck shirts and sandals and few were dressed in a fashion that would enable an English judge 'to hear them'.

Notwithstanding the vast differences between French and English law and practice, the French have a considerable regard for the English legal system and for the manner in which English lawyers behave.

I am therefore sad to see in an English language paper that circulates in the south of France that a woman member of the staff of an English firm has (to quote the journal) 'begun court action for the right to wear a short skirt or expose a bare midriff'.

She seems to have applied to the Employment Tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal.

I trust that the tribunal will dismiss the claim but when our profession is being subjected on all sides to such a variety of disapprobation, could the Law Society perhaps make it a rule of conduct that partners ensure that all persons who work in the office of a solicitor should be dressed in a decent manner? When I was in practice in the City, no such rule would have been thought necessary, but clearly it is now and I would like to be able to assure my French colleagues that we have not fallen behind the standards that they have always assumed that we maintained.

Henry Dyson, Nice, France