Dial up a smile ; ; ;Law firms that refuse to disclose the names of partners over the telephone are either prima donnas or paranoid, a survey has concluded.

Business development consultancy M3 undertook a rather odd survey of almost 200 law firms across six counties between London and the midlands and found that nearly 10% of them refused to disclose names.

As the company says: If a firms senior and managing partner insist on remaining faceless and its telephonists are trained only in the art of haughty bureaucracy, then who can blame the would-be client for taking his business to Warm and Friendly & Co down the road? That told you.