Solicitors set to take leap of faith

'It's not so hard, this parachuting lark,' Nick Gurney-Champion, president of Hampshire Law Society is reported to have said to his pal Louise Hamilton of Solicitors Own Software as this photo was taken, before it was gently explained to him that next time the plane would be several thousand feet in the air before he jumped out.

Obiter doesn't know what it is about the Law Society annual conference that sends solicitors from Hampshire into an extreme sports frenzy - previous efforts in aid of the Solicitors Benevolent Association have included huge walks, massive paddles and the like.

Their effort for this year's conference involves Mr Gurney-Champion and Ms Hamilton (whose company is covering the costs of the training and jump), together with last year's canoeist Matthew Robins, his wife Lynne and another local solicitor, Sue Carter, jumping after taking a 'crash course' (their unfortunate words) at the Black Knights parachute centre in Lancashire.

Rumours that, in an effort to jazz up the conference even more, Society President Carolyn Kirby will parachute into the Manchester International Conference Centre to give her speech have, sadly, been denied.

To donate, visit: www.sba.org or send cheques payable to the SBA to director John Griffin at DX 38500 Southampton 3.