In brief: Fight is on for magazine accolade

Four women lawyers are battling it out for the title of Cosmopolitan magazine's most outstanding woman of the year. High profile Leigh Day & Co partner Geraldine McCool is leading the lawyer line-up for the prize to be awarded at a breakfast at

Claridges in London on 7 December. She is joined by Dinah Rose, a sex discrimination barrister from 2 Hare Court, Debra Emery, a family solicitor at Brutton & Co in Portsmouth, and Sarah Phillimore, a criminal barrister at 1 Sergeants' Inn. A winner will be selected from 100 finalists. Women under 35 were invited to enter the awards in March this year. The four lawyers were nominated for the professions category.