Solicitors serve up competitive instinct

Away from the hype of Wimbledon, Jeremy Fleming discovers a tournament for lawyers

Many lawyers will have been gripped by the annual bout of expectation shortly followed by depression that is the lot of Wimbledon followers of Tim Henman - the perennial 'nearly' man of British tennis.

But for others, tennis is more than an annual chance to project feelings of national inferiority and disappointment on the shoulders of poor Timmy.

There are a number of solicitors who play tennis quite well, and although there do not appear to be any dedicated tennis clubs for solicitors, one needs look no further than the annual Nomura Inter-Company Tennis Challenge to see that lawyers take their tennis seriously.

The contest is held for all companies registered in the London area.

There are four contests: men's singles, men's and women's doubles and mixed doubles.

Law firms which entered teams this year include Allen & Overy, US firm Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Clifford Chance, Field Fisher Waterhouse, Freshfields, Herbert Smith, Meyer Brown Rowe & Maw, and Pinsents.

Cadwalader is the only firm with representatives still in the men's singles tournament; it seems that even at the corporate level, US tennis players are beating the home competition off the court.

But there are plenty of teams left in the doubles contests.

Denise Sexton, an assistant in the property department of Field Fisher and captain of the firm's women's team, says tennis is a good way of releasing stress after work, and a very social game.

Doubtless the other competitors in the Nomura competition make for good contacts: merchant banks, surveying and accountancy firms provide most of the teams.

But according to Ms Sexton, nothing beats coming up against another firm of solicitors: 'There's definitely always competition between law firms, and if you can beat them at tennis as well then that's just even better.' Perhaps this kind of attitude is easier to adopt when the team is doing well.

Field Fisher has made it into the third round of the mixed doubles of the competition.

All the matches up to the third round are played at clubs and public tennis courts around London, arranged by the teams themselves.

The competition begins in June, and by September all of the first three rounds have been played.

One of the organisers, Shali Hutchins, says that by the third round, the standard has become 'very good and competitive'.

From there on, all of the remaining teams go to Sutton Tennis Academy, near Rosehill in Surrey, for a weekend of play-offs to determine who goes forward to the quarter-finals and semi-finals.

The finals are played on 3 October at London's Queens' Club.

Prizes include leisure breaks, tennis equipment and trophies, but the suspicion is that - for teams emerging from so many City institutions - the fact that the victors have beaten off so many professional rivals must be the sweetest trophy.

Debbie Harris, head of corporate know-how and training and an assistant solicitor at Allen & Overy, is also through to the third round of the mixed doubles.

'It's great to get all that aggression out,' she says, adding that it is 'very sociable'.

For her, part of the fun of the tournament is the pot luck of the quality of the teams against whom you may end up competing in the first couple of rounds.

She says: 'The organisers have no idea of the standards, which completely vary.

There are some teams which aren't so strong but by the third round it's getting very competitive.'

Addleshaw Goddard did not enter the Nomura this year - but the firm has a coterie of keen players and weaves tennis into its client entertainment programme.

Private equity partner Simon Walker - who used to play for Buckinghamshire and kept up his game during a posting to Hong Kong - says a number of the firm's partners play at the Vanderbilt Club in Shepherd's Bush on a regular basis, an old sporting haunt of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The firm also books lunchtime sessions on Thursdays at tennis courts near Addleshaw's City offices.

He says: 'This week, we're organising a knock-out tournament at Queen's Club for which we'll invite teams from client banks and private equity organisations.' The firm also organises tennis client lunches during the Wimbledon season, installing big screens in the dining rooms.

He says it is a good game for corporate entertainment because with doubles games 'you can get a teamwork thing going on a personal level as well as a professional one'.

The game also has practical advantages.

'If it's good weather you can be outdoors, but there are also indoor courts, and if people drop out it's easy to slim down doubles games to singles.'

Tim Henman may struggle to get to world number one, but, characteristically enough, the lawyers cannot wholly agree on who are the king and queen of tennis.

Mr Walker and Ms Sexton agree that the Williams sisters are the best women, but Ms Harris plumps for Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Meanwhile in the men's game they opt for Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and Pete Sampras respectively.

- For information on the Nomura Inter-Company Tennis Challenge, contact Shali or Paul Hutchins, tel: 02089469374 or visit the Web site: www.nomura-tennis.co.uk.