Tulkinghorn: belles, pussycats and a summit to shout about
Bell(e)s of the ball
Following the success of the City Conker Cup, Addleshaw Goddard is taking up the challenge of promoting an obscure sport by sponsoring the City Goalball tournament in Old Spitalfields Market.
Now a paralympic sport, Goalball is a three-a-side game originally designed for visually impaired people that is played with a ball with a bell inside. However, blackout goggles now enable sighted players to compete on equal terms.
The tournament takes place on 19 November, and Addleshaw Goddard is sure that the promise of a new experience will draw the crowds. But being pragmatic, the firm has a back-up plan in the form of a personal appearance by the Cheeky Girls (left).
Tulkinghorn will not be sending a scribe along this time around, preferring to attend in person. To see the new sport for himself, naturally.
Mr Justice Pussycat
Tulkinghorn has noticed a bit of a marriage crunch, following on from the credit crunch.
Family law specialists, like those at Manches, are loving it. As well as bagging a lead role for Guy Ritchie in his divorce from Madonna, the firm has also developed enough clout to bring in High Court judges to give speeches.
One such event saw Mr Justice Coleridge, who presided over the peaceful separation of Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, give a talk, during which he made the rather unusual statement: “I am, as is well known, a pussycat.”
Tulkinghorn thinks that being a pussycat is only one step away from being a Pussycat Doll. Which rather begs the question: don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like Mr Justice Coleridge?
Summit to shout about
Tulkinghorn has received pictures of people with a copy of The Lawyer in all sorts of exotic places, even Weston-super-Mare.
But the picture below, submitted by Outer Temple Chambers silk Richard Lissack QC, wins the prize for the most hard-earned.
Lissack is at the summit of Mount Kilamanjaro, 20 degrees Celsius below zero and 20,000ft up. Despite the lack of oxygen, he still had the presence of mind to laminate the magazine, thereby protecting it from the elements.
For all those in awe of Lissack’s laminating achievements, you can donate generously to his cause, the Depaul trust, at www.justgiving.com/richardlissack.
Home truths
Lots of people might use their kitchen as a makeshift dining room or the living room as a bedroom when guests come to stay. But in Abu Dhabi, where office space is at a premium, Clyde & Co has been forced to turn a penthouse apartment into offices.
One of Tulkinghorn’s scribes has learnt that the firm is redecorating the penthouse, taking down the wallpaper and removing the beds, to make it more office-like.
Tulkinghorn’s mole understands that Clydes still has problems finding residential accommodation. Tulkinghorn suggests it could let out some offices and live there.
Out-of-hours service
The role of a general counsel can differ according to a company’s internal culture. Tulkinghorn understands that many would rather be considered enablers rather than that person in the boardroom who says no all the time.
Sadly, this is not always possible. Tulkinghorn has learnt that one general counsel at a FTSE 100 company received a phone call at 2am from his CEO.
The panicked company boss told the GC to get down to Paddington Green police station, where his son was being held for possession of Class-A drugs.
More used to board minutes than criminal convictions, Tulkinghorn understands that the in-house chief organised for a duty solicitor to go round and sort the mess out.
School’s out
The dreaded crunch is having an effect on fee-paying schools. One of Tulkinghorn’s moles learnt of a parent who was forced to pull their children out of a posh London school after losing their job at Lehman Brothers.
The children are now spoken of in hushed tones, being referred to only as “The Lehman Children”.
Separated at birth
Actor Neil Morrissey has been off the celebrity radar since his dodgy Homebase ads with Leslie Ash. Since that time, the Men Behaving Badly star has been researching a part in a legal drama in the guise of Watson Farley & Williams partner Stephen Tupper. But Morrissey got more drama than he wanted after being caught up in the partners’ dispute at Hammonds.
