With assistant retention rates at some City firms plummeting faster than those saucy Norton Rose necklines criticised by Walker, it is no surprise to hear all this talk of ‘alternative career paths’ for junior lawyers.

Former solicitors Lucy Martin (who thanklessly toiled away at City firms including Simmons, Allen & Overy and the legacy Gouldens) and Gail Hennessy (also ex-Gouldens) have taken that thought to its logical extreme – by abandoning commercial law altogether.