Plain speaking

The suspicion that some lawyers have more time on their hands than is strictly healthy has been given credence by Lord Woolf's competition to come up with a plain-English alternative to the phrase 'pro bono'.

The winner was the accurate if unexciting 'Law for free', but according to the organisers at the Institute of Legal Executives, there were a couple of slightly less serious entries which sought to curry favour by playing on the Lord Chief Justice's name.

'Wuff Justice' was one entry and it was apparently accompanied by a doctored photograph of a dog wearing a bow-tie and judicial wig, but sadly the photo appears to have been lost and the reason why it was sporting a bow-tie will forever remain shrouded in secrecy.

Another was 'Waiving obligation of legal fees', or 'Woolf' for short.

No wonder the great man sent the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, in his stead to the party at London wine museum Vinopolis last week, where the winners were named.

Here Lord Phillips is pictured presenting a magnum of champagne (paid for by Lord Woolf) to co-winner Nicholas Khan, a trainee solicitor at Mullis & Peake in Romford, Essex.

Peter Tokely, who is in the records department at Clifford Chance, also won a magnum.

And for those thinking that the Master of the Rolls looks a touch diminutive, it is actually Mr Khan who, we are told, is rather tall.