More tales from the old school arrive in response to Obiter’s request for memories of first days in the law. David Holt of Ipswich writes: ‘In my first private practice job as a clerk in the early 1970s, I learnt from an “old school” managing clerk of idiosyncratic ways. One of his clients, brandishing a summons, said he thought he had a legal point based on his address being incorrectly quoted. The response was “listen mate, I’ll tell you if you’ve got any (expletive) legal points”. The client meekly accepted.’

Like many of Obiter’s correspondents, David had a Saturday job to make ends meet. ‘Mine was in china and glass with a well-known department store and I only gave it up when I needed to spend the time studying instead.’

Is the Saturday job to make ends meet still a thing for trainees? Obiter suspects it may be. Email any burger-flipping tales to obiter@lawsociety.org.uk – confidences will be respected if necessary.

Topics