Obiter

Room serviceTop City lawyers are, of course, used to being waited on by secretaries, trainees and assistants alike, but they will have the chance to try out the real thing when they get to October's International Bar Association bunfight in Durban, South Africa.

The conference brochure lists a string of hotels where the IBA has negotiated preferential rates, and Obiter is sure that delegates will be fighting over rooms at the five-star Royal.

For a mere 80 a day (thanks to the weak rand), which some partners attending Durban earn in the time it takes to open a file, delegates can enjoy not just a suite, but one with butler service.

Will bragging be bad form?

Having a ball: Not all of one's working life can be fun, fun, fun, but Obiter has never received a glummer-looking publicity shot.

You would think that someone had raided Simon Ledbrooke's client account, when he'd actually acted in a rather sexy deal: the 8 million transfer that brought Italian football star Massimo Maccarone to Middlesbrough.

Could it be that Mr Ledbrooke, a corporate lawyer at Manchester firm Fox Brooks Marshall, is a Newcastle or Sunderland fan, worried about the effect the new signing will have on his team's prospects? Whatever the reason, goodness knows what he looks like when a deal goes pear-shaped.

It's fun to be (at) Camp AshurstIt seems there is nothing solicitors will not do for a good cause - however embarrassing - and this sexy crew of property lawyers from City law firm Ashurst Morris Crisp proves the point.

Belting out their version of Village People classic YMCA - renamed YAMC - (from second left) partner Richard Vernon, solicitor Ian Green and partners Anthony Burnett-Scott and David Evans performed at Party Near the Park earlier this month, in which professionals from across the property industry raised 35,000 to help the Unicorn Children's Centre build a theatre on London's South Bank.

They were backed by Clarence King and The Regents, a band run by Bob Kidby, head of property at Lovells.

Ashursts' lyrics deserve an airing: 'Clients, there's no need to feel down/I said clients, you've got to pay us your pounds/I said clients, it's not as bad as it sounds/ There's no need to be unhappy...

It's fun to work with us Y AMC/It's fun to work with us Y AMC/You can get your answer, you can finish your deal/We can do whatever you feel'.

Apparently, they brought the house down.

Linklaters and, well, whoeverThose fine professionals who orchestrate vital corporate identity changes must start planning luxury holidays whenever they hear that Linklaters is on the telephone.

This grand old practice was known as Linklaters & Paines for donkey's years, but in recent times has renamed itself more often than a Great Train Robber on the run.

In the fashion of snappy names, it was rebranded Linklaters in 1998.

Then, as it built a European network, Linklaters & Alliance.

In 1999, we returned to Linklaters & Paines to denote the UK member of the alliance.

At some point in the past three years, Paines was dropped and we had Linklaters again as a member of Linklaters & Alliance.

Still with us? Well, the unsurprising news coming out of Silk Street last week was that Linklaters & Alliance has been dropped and everyone in the family will now go under the Linklaters name.

We understand local bookies are giving short odds on Paines making a comeback when the firm's management realises that it hasn't overhauled the corporate identity for at least six weeks.

Look donors, no handsMaybe it's something in his name, but Birmingham solicitor Andrew Sparrow felt the urge to take to the air recently in a most ill-advised fashion - strapped to the wings of a 1940s Boeing Stearman biplane.

'Mr Sparrow is believed to be one of the first practising lawyers in the country to perform the test,' a press release reveals, but how they know is anyone's guess.

Bizarrely, although he did it in aid of the Children's Liver Disease Foundation, Mr Sparrow was unable to raise any money beforehand.

Under Civil Aviation Authority rules, wingwalking is a professional display act and so thought too dangerous to be done by do-gooding amateurs.

'It was scary, I have to say,' he tells Obiter, 'so in some ways it's a good rule.' He is now looking for retrospective sponsorship.

Contact Catherine Arkley at the charity, tel: 0121 212 3839.