Lawyers are jabbing away not just in the courtroom but also in the boxing ring, reports Dan Hayes

Verbal sparring in the courtroom or across a negotiating table may no longer provide all lawyers with the requisite release for their combative and competitive spirit, it appears.

A growing number of legal heavyweights, middleweights and lightweights are finding a release for the stresses of their day job in the ring, kitted out in gloves and headguards, and looking to land a few telling blows on their opponents in a literal, more than a figurative, manner.

And it is not merely men who are trying their hand at the pugilistic arts; at least one female solicitor has taken to boxing.

Sara Davis, who works for Bryan & Armstrong in Mansfield, took part in her first competitive bout in December after training for two years.

However, things did not go according to plan.

'It was pretty terrible,' she says, 'I was fighting a girl who was a good boxer, and slightly heavier than me, in a really smoky working men's club in Derby.'

Ms Davis came off second best, but she was soon to get her revenge.

'I trained hard for the rematch in February and stopped her in the second round,' she says.

The 32-year-old family law solicitor, who is also the mother of a four-year-old daughter, was no stranger to vigorous exercise prior to her boxing career.

'I was into body building for about seven years,' she says, 'but I gave that up before having a baby.

After that I'd still go to the gym but I wasn't really motivated.'

The interest in boxing was sparked when Ms Davis and her husband went to a professional bout featuring Johnny Nelson, the World Boxing Organisation cruiserweight world champion.

'I thought this is something I could do,' she says.

She now trains at a boxing gym in Derby, where she is one of just three women fighters.

'Training takes a lot of time, but doing something like this is really empowering,' she says, 'I think a lot of women are really interested in trying out traditionally male-dominated sports, but the idea of going into a back-street gym puts them off.'

Ms Davis's colleagues have been supportive of her hobby, but she adds: 'Touch wood, I've had no major facial injuries I can't cover with make-up.

If it ever happened, and I had to go to court, I think I'd tell the judge what had occurred beforehand.'

Her boxing season begins again in September and in the meantime Ms Davis is running three times a week and fine-tuning her sparring.

'I don't do any weights at all,' she adds, 'I do exercises in the gym such as press-ups and burpees, but you don't want to be too built up because it reduces your speed.'

While Ms Davis may be unique as a female boxing solicitor, her male counterparts are showing an increasing interest in the sport.

Most participate through an organisation called the Real Fight Club, which arranges bouts under the auspices of the International White-Collar Boxing Association.

The most successful legal boxer is Alex Mehta, a 33-year-old, doctorate-holding barrister and legal director of publisher Judicium.

He is also the white-collar world light-middleweight champion and a man who has defended his title an impressive seven times including - in 2001 - against a US judge, Philip Maier.

'It's very hard balancing the needs of training and work,' he says, 'but I find it a great way to think and unwind.

I can completely switch off.

In fact, I probably have some of my most reflective moments in the ring.' He adds that while he trains three or four times a week, he would ideally like that figure to be five or six.

Mr Mehta has been fighting for longer than most.

He began boxing as a student at Oxford University, where he won four blues, and moved on to the white-collar version of the sport from there.

And, far from seeing boxing as detrimental to his career, he maintains that the opposite is the case.

'It's very useful to apply your mind to something that isn't work,' he says.

'If you're in the boxing ring, you have to use every ounce of your concentration - you can't let your mind stray back to what might be sitting in the in-tray.

It's a very cleansing process.'

But sometimes the demands of office and ring can clash, he adds.

'On occasion, I've worked a 12 or 13-hour day, then gone off to a fight straight afterwards.'

Golf it certainly is not, but white-collar boxing is not purely for those in the first flush of youth.

'I think the oldest fighter I know is 52 years old,' says Mr Mehta.

'They call him Bus Pass and he walks out to the theme tune from "Emmerdale".

Lots of the guys are in their 40s and many turned to boxing because they wanted to lose weight and try something different.

Besides, most guys are probably reasonably competitive and this is a good way to bring out that competitiveness.'

LINKS: www.therealfightclub.co.uk

Dan Hayes is a freelance journalist