Obiter

Digby Jones goes on whirlwind tour

It is good to know that Confederation of British Industry director-general Digby Jones has not forgotten his roots.

Arguably Birmingham's most famous solicitor, he seems to have filled his diary with law firm opening bashes, to judge by this recent flood of photos.

First he was in Manchester to open Pinsent Curtis Biddle's offices in the city (pictured top left with senior partner Julian Tonks), then it was to Birmingham for the opening of Bevan Ashford's office there (pictured bottom left with chief executive Ann Conway-Hughes, the city's Lord Mayor Mahmood Hussain and marketing partner Jean Sapeta), before finally stopping off in nearby Bromsgrove to launch the Solicitors Property Shop's midlands HQ, based at Thomas Horton & Sons (partner James Sommerville and senior partner Matthew Horton are pictured top right).

We called the CBI to ask whether the rest of British industry was feeling left out, but a press officer explained that Mr Jones was simply a busy man who got through a lot of work.

But let's face it, it's got to be worth trying your luck if you have an office - or even a cupboard - to open.

His address is: Centre Point, 103 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1DU.

Stamp of approval

One of the undoubted highlights of the recent American Bar Association conference was the news that Thurgood Marshall, the first black lawyer to sit on the US Supreme Court bench, is to be featured on a stamp.

Indeed, he is the ninth US judge to be so honoured.

It raised the question of whether a judge has ever graced a British stamp, a query which got Royal Mail historians all of a quiver.

The answer was no - the best they could come up with was an English Civil War issue (because Oliver Cromwell set up a system for approving new judges of integrity - how's that for tenuous?) and the Magna Carta.

When told of how many have made it in the US, a spokesman noted: 'The US Postal Service doesn't have quite as strict procedures as we do.

They tend to whack out quite a lot of stamps each year.' We could make an application to the Stamps Advisory Committee to celebrate an appropriate anniversary with a special issue (of which there are fewer than ten a year).

So the challenge is now on to find one.

Immediate front-runner is the Gazette's 100th anniversary next year - we think it's great, but it may not send the public into a stamp-licking frenzy.

We will gladly apply but the profession may have to hold its breath: applications take three years to wend their way through the system and have to be approved by Her Maj.

But as they probably say at the Royal Mail, if you don't send it, it can't be lost in the post.

Idyllic divorce?

Have you seen the size of these cocktail umbrellas? Yes, we're back in the familiar world of lawyers trying (and failing) to look comfortable in daft public relations shots.

It was all going so well for Birmingham divorce law firm Benussi & Co when we received details of its new identity based on the idea of a tropical island representing the successful outcome of a divorce.

A glossy brochure uses the motif well and then some bright spark thought to throw in this picture of partners Helen Jane Arnold and Diane Benussi looking like they've just stepped off a beach in the Costa del Brum, attired, of course, in their suits.

But the pair are clearly game for a laugh - we have reported before on how Ms Benussi advises on how men can avoid their wives detecting their affairs - the golden rule being do not stand in front of the mirror and ask your wife: 'I don't look bad for 45, do I?' - while we were most struck by the 'quote of the month' from Rodney Dangerfield on the firm's Web site: 'If it weren't for pickpockets I'd have no sex life at all.'