Drop-in centre

Dealing with the Competition Act and the new regime of dawn raids has clearly given competition lawyer Andrew Finfer (right) a taste for swooping around.

Mr Finfer and pensions specialist David Knox, both lawyers at Newcastle firm Ward Hadaway, recently abseiled down the 200ft Bell Tower at the Civic Centre in Newcastle in aid of the British Lung Foundation.

The challenge was not the abseil itself - Mr Finfer is an experienced mountaineer, while Mr Knox is a company commander in the Royal Marines Reserve - but rather keeping cool in their business suits.

'This is the first time we've had lawyers abseiling in suits to raise money,' said a British Lung Foundation spokeswoman.

'But we also had a chef abseiling in his chef's trousers.' Whether he wore anything else was not made clear.