Tulkinghorn: two yaks, one cow and an after-dinner Minto

Yakety yak

Tulkinghorn often hears of strange things happening over Christmas, but never involving yaks. Cloisters Chambers has broken that run by celebrating the ­festive season with the ­purchase of two hairy ­creatures from Save the Children.

You can never have enough yaks, ­Tulkinghorn finds.

The yaks will not be kept in chambers, however, but will be looked after by schools in Tibet to help provide milk, butter and wool for knitting.

Cloisters barrister Caspar Glyn said: “We decided to buy the hairy yaks this year instead of sending Christmas cards to individuals. We felt it was a better use of chambers’ funds. People to whom we normally send cards have been sent an email instead explaining what we’ve done. We’ve also sent them a picture of the yaks!

“There’s been a lot of good-humoured banter from recipients of the email about what the yaks should be called. The most popular choices so far are ‘Robin’ and ‘Allen’ and ‘Equal’ and ‘Pay’.”

Quiz master

If you ever find yourself in a pub quiz opposite ­Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer tax associate David Stainer, then just throw in the towel.

Stainer has become the first winning captain of BBC4 quiz show Only ­Connect, which is a quiz “in which connections need to be made between ­apparently unconnected things”.

Sounds challenging. But there are more reasons why you would rather be on Stainer’s team than playing against him.

In 1999 he reached the final of University ­Challenge, where he ­represented Oriel College, Oxford. Two years later he won £64,000 on Who Wants To Be A ­Millionaire?, then he won four shows on Countdown in 2002 and competed in the 2006 final of Radio 4’s Brain of Britain.

Festive fun

Tulkinghorn is still ­recovering from his Christmas excesses, which saw him have eggnog for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for a week.

He is, apparently, not the only one ­nursing a hangover, with some firms holding elaborate Christmas parties this year.

Sacker & ­Partners held a 1980s-themed bash, with senior partner Ian ­Pittaway dressing up as Adam Ant. Other partners went as Madonna and
Cyndi Lauper.

But that pales in ­comparison with Uría Menéndez’s effort. The Spanish firm invited all of its global staff to Madrid, paying for their flights and accommodation.

Co-managing partner José María Segovia says even the postroom boys from Peru were invited.

Wragge & Co holds its Christmas party in January as a post-Christmas ‘pick-me-up’. The event takes place in Birmingham’s ­International Convention Centre. “We put the people from ­London up in a hotel and they can make a ­weekend of it,” says senior partner Quentin Poole.

But not everyone shares the sense of seasonal joy. One Nabarro partner is scathing about the firm’s party, saying: “We’ve got a rather sad in-house band made up of partners who are frustrated musicians.”

It’s funny. You don’t get many musicians who are frustrated lawyers in their spare time.

After-dinner Minto

Tulkinghorn just cannot get enough of stories about lawyers behaving badly. So you can imagine his delight when he heard about former ­Dickson Minto partner Philip Anderson’s antics in a restaurant at the posh ­Gleneagles Hotel in ­Scotland.

Anderson apparently got his very own Dickson out during a meal with a female ­companion. He has since pleaded guilty to two criminal acts and agreed to pay a £300 fine.

Moooooving around

And now for something completely different. Tulkinghorn understands that January can be a dark and difficult time.

So here are some ­pictures of small rubber cows in exotic locations to brighten the mood, courtesy of Mills & Reeve.

Apparently lawyers from the firm have been taking the latex bovines on holiday to see who can get the most exotic picture.

It’s a nice excuse to get a bit of sun on the pages of ­Tulkinghorn, anyway.

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