Life on the Iberian peninsula is not all sweetness and light, however. With major Spanish firms like Garrigues and Uria Menendez increasingly looking to muscle in on the action, the rivalry between Portuguese advisers and their larger cousins is getting tetchier by the day.

When one local partner was asked what the Portuguese office of a Spanish rival could offer the local market, the less than gracious one-word response of “tapas” was not exactly what The Diary had had in mind.