All lawyers consider themselves to be at the top of the academic tree, but which are the first among equals? Well, according to just over a quarter of the Big Question panel, when it comes to intellectual stimulation the, perhaps surprising, answer is the hard-working boys and girls in the corporate finance department. Just over one in four of our panel of 100 senior solicitors said corporate finance was most demanding on the brain cells.

There is significantly more to corporate finance than form-filling, according to Charles Barter, a corporate partner at Travers Smith Braithwaite.