Bold and beautiful

City law firm Herbert Smith - renowned for its no-prisoner-style attack litigators - threw a party last week to schmooze the press and presumably rebrand itself in a more trendy light.

The marketing bods landed on the Lime bar just down the road from the firm's Bishopsgate HQ, which combines brightly coloured walls with equally brightly coloured cocktails, and appears normally to run a nobody-older-than-25 policy at the door.

So they scored well on the trend front; but how did the marketing gurus do on the bright-marketing-ideas front? 'What would really be good,' said one in a deeply earnest moment to Obiter, 'would be if every time you mentioned Herbert Smith you did it in bold type.' Room for improvement, is perhaps the diplomatic answer.

But to show good will and to encourage young marketing execs every, here's a one off: Herbert Smith.