The Diary may have ventured outside our Charterhouse Street stamping ground for the IBA’s annual bash in Durban, but sightings of senior partners from top City law firms were about as rare as glimpses of the so-called ‘big five’ safari animals in the nearby game reserves.

Ashurst Morris Crisp senior partner Geoffrey Green was no exception, despite the fact he was billed to speak at the conference at a session on the contradictory professional duties of international lawyers.