Stalkers and mockers subject solicitors to love and hate ; ;The plot of Fatal Attraction was replayed in the City last week, as solicitor Mark Roe described his ten-year stalking ordeal at the hands of his former secretary Judith Atkinson (The Times, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, 14 November). ; ;The court heard that Ms Atkinson, who was spared jail despite twice ignoring court orders not to contact Mr Roe, bombarded her ex-boss with disturbing letters describing her love for him, telephoned his wife claiming that her husband was visiting her for sex, and once even ambushed Mr Roe outside his house, flinging pepper into his eyes. ;There was also no love lost between the legal worlds steel magnolia Fiona Shackleton and her soon-to-be-ex firm Farrer & Co (The Times, 17 November). ;The glamorous and vivacious Ms Shackleton, described glowingly on the front page as Londons most fashionable solicitor, handled both Prince Charles and the Duke of Yorks divorces. However, despite or perhaps because of these impressive connections, there was apparently a lot of jealousy at Farrers, and many of the staff found her a bit larger than life. As a result, Ms Shackleton is taking her royal clients, along with her carefully coiffed mass of blonde hair and fondness for glitzy jewellery to legal pastures new fellow London firm Payne Hicks Beach. ;A story which seems set to run and run is the soap opera of the US elections and the papers have stepped up their persecution of the legal profession for its role in deciding the next president. ;The Independent (15 November) described how shades of the OJ Simpson legal drama are descending on Florida. Although Johnnie Cochrane is not in town yet, it warns competition is on to better his famous if the glove doesnt fit, you must acquit mantra. Odds are being taken as to the first lawyer to come out with If theres a doubt, you must recount. ;Suzanne Moore in the Mail on Sunday (12 November) took a somewhat stronger line, asking Who will save us from this plague of legal parasites? She declared that boring lawyers are taking over the world, whilst getting rich on the back of others misery. These parasites and vultures who may be clever, but are not necessarily people of principle are contaminating public life. ;The Daily Mail continued the theme, devoting a whole page of Thursdays issue to the funniest jokes about the profession we love to hate (16 November). So along with such gems as What is the difference between God and a lawyer? God doesnt think hes a lawyer, we were treated to old classics such as Whats the difference between a lawyer and a herd of buffalo? The lawyer charges more. ;To more weighty matters, and the Financial Times (16 November) reported that the corporate killing law which would make companies, NHS trusts and other public bodies criminally liable for deaths caused by management failure will almost certainly be dropped from the next parliamentary session. ;Corporate liability or no corporate liability, nothing looks set to put a halt to the spiralling compensation culture that the media has played up so much recently. The Telegraph (15 November) reported how according to a new survey, 74% of people would sue their employers for causing them injury at work, and more than half would seek compensation from a school if their child were injured there. For some reason, this was seen as a shocking statistic. ;Finally, spare a thought for Richard Boardman of Manchester law firm Halliwell Landau. He has volunteered to spend 24 hours a day all this week living and working on-line, in a Big Brother-style Internet peep show designed to publicise the World Manchester 2000 exhibition later this month (The Times, 14 November). However, ulterior motives can be detected in his decision Mr Boardman, a divorc, is hoping that the experiment will also land him a date. We wish Mr Boardman the best of luck but he should watch out for stalkers. ;Victoria MacCallum ; ; ;