Tesco may have arrived on the Algarve, but the ‘Tesco law’ concept is apparently light years from reaching the Portuguese Bar. Word reaches The Diary that one entrepreneurial Lisbon lawyer has been accused of shaming the whole profession – by opening an office on the ground floor of a shopping mall.

Aiming to offer your average Joao on the street more straightforward access to decent legal advice, the lawyer in question thought a shopping centre would be the ideal place to rent an office.