No Becks fizz here ; ;Lawyers at top south-west firm Bevan Ashford are not like David Beckham, their chief executive Nick Jarrett-Kerr declared after an internal review about their working practices.

;The chief executive, who uses a red and yellow card system to discipline his partners, said the England midfielder is reportedly very particular about the way things are stored in his fridge.

He said: We are not like that at all in our firm.

;Mr Jarrett-Kerr told the Law Societys law management section conference in Birmingham last week that the review showed how Bevan Ashford partners do not like procedure.

Most of our partners are not particularly taken on things like protocol or process.

It surprised me, I must say, said Mr Jarrett-Kerr.

;Consultants Amadeus International tested a selection of 12 partners, which included senior management and the firms board.

The semi-psychometric tests were conducted to find out whether they had a particular style and found them good at analysis and rationalising, but not driven by procedure.

Mr Jarrett-Kerr is now rolling out a management training programme on branding and values, to find out whether his partners are emotional, entrepreneurial or logical.

;We havent put it together as a whole survey yet, but if we did the view is that on the whole the people that we surveyed are simply not very strong on process [because] most of the training is skills, he said.

;Anne Mizzi