Lawyers at Slaughter and May were left red-faced today when a clerk in the Rolls Building thwarted their attempt to reserve seats in the public gallery.

Laminated signs with the firm’s name had been placed across three front-row seats this morning, as an all-day application hearing was due to be heard in the case of Municipio de Mariana, Rodovia Juscelino Kubitschek and others v BHP Group Limited and another.

But the signs were snatched up by a clerk who, when the lawyers for both parties were assembled, held them up at the front of court and demanded to know who had placed them there. The suited Slaughters entourage shuffled in the seats, before one young man plucked up the courage to signal his involvement.  

The clerk said: 'Right, can you not please. Seats where counsel are sitting, fine. Seats at the back, press who are coming in have the right to sit. Seats cannot be reserved. I had this in another case and I got complaints and it has gone to members of the judiciary. I don’t need another complaint,' the clerk concluded.

The silence in the courtroom signalled that nobody was minded to challenge this contention. The arrival of Mr Justice Constable shortly thereafter appeared to signal the end of the matter, for now.

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