Trading memories

Recently appointed Solicitor-General Harriet Harman reminisced about her past as a grass-roots solicitor during her speech at the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) conference in London at the weekend.

Working at Brent legal centre in the 1980s, she saw plenty of action fishing 'A-list left-wing celebrities' including Arthur Scargill - picketing in the Grunwick trade union dispute - from Willesden Green police station.

'I later wished I'd left him in there,' said Ms Harman.

Getting Ms Harman to do the speech was quite a coup for SAHCA, but then training officer Julia Holman and the Solicitor-General were once trainees together, and they bonded in a way that fewer and fewer do nowadays.

'If I remember rightly,' Ms Harman said, 'we spent most of our time smoking.'