There is a rare breed of partner who stands out among their peers as especially media-savvy. Even when they do not wish to be drawn on a subject they will return phone calls to the media and pass the time of day with persistent hacks while skirting the issues in hand.

Take Howard Morris, the CEO of Denton Wilde Sapte, who, when asked about sensitive discussions that took place at a recent board meeting, blind-sided one easilyconfused hack by saying that the majority of the meeting was spent discussing what to do about the firms broken lifts.