Royal show

As regular readers know, in an effort to sprinkle a little bit of stardust on the profession we are always on the look-out for lawyers caught on camera with celebrities, but normally we have to put up with G, M and Y-list television faces.

However, this week it is all praise to Neil Sampson, a partner at City firm Rosenblatt, for being centre stage, no less, when Prince Andrew was about.

Mr Sampson was hovering when Prince Andrew handed over the award for China exporter of the year to Aldham Robarts of Telescope Technologies at a Chinese New Year dinner, held at the swanky Dorchester Hotel in London's fashionable Mayfair.

The prince was there in his role as the UK's special representative for international trade and investment, while Mr Sampson got in on the photographic act - much to the surprise of Prince Andrew, to judge by his face - as chairman of the award committee.

Perhaps the presence of royalty explains why the committee got a bit overly excited by Telescope Technologies' achievement in winning a contract for an astronomical telescope in Yunnan.

'Telescope Technologies is a worthy successor to the western Jesuits who assisted the Qing emperors in the same field,' Mr Sampson tells us.