Clifford Chance college

Forget new man - a new breed of caring, sharing lawyer has emerged in the shape of Peter Charlton, London managing partner of Clifford Chance.

His good nature got the better of him when he received an e-mail from a desperate law student, struggling with her course work.

The enterprising undergraduate had worked out that to e-mail anyone at Clifford Chance, all you have to do is enter the person's name, separated by a dot, followed by cliffordchance.com.

Mr Charlton was surprised by the student's cheeky request - not for a training contract, but to research her essay on a case.

The e-mail read: 'I am finding it extremely difficult to find any information on this case and was wondering if you had any information which you could possibly send me.' The obliging Mr Charlton dusted off the relevant tomes and replied the same day.

But to discourage further approaches, and to prevent word getting around that he was branching into pro bono work, he added: 'By the way, you should know I'm not available for free consultations, and if you get stuck in future, please ask your tutor or lecturer.

Good luck.' With a charge-out rate no doubt running into hundreds of pounds, that should stop them.