Choosing a barrister is a very serious business consisting of matching the requirements of the client and the case to the specialty and personality of the barrister.

Or so The Diary thought. Until last week, that was, when one top litigator claimed to have instructed a magic circle chambers barrister on the basis that “in a list of ‘who’s who’ at the Bar he put down sunbathing as one of his hobbies”.