Leading by example

Julian Tonks, the senior partner of what is now called Pinsents, is what you call hands-on.

The firm sent out a little flyer last month to announce its change of name, claiming that dropping Curtis and Biddle shows the firm practises what it preaches about clarity and brevity.

'If we sound like the firm for you,' it concludes, 'call us and ask for Julian Tonks.' Now, Pinsents is a pretty big firm with no doubt a bevy of business development people ready to jump on the slightest sniff of a lead, so for the senior partner to be poised to speak to any old riff-raff who should happen to call up seems pretty good.