Niche practice area of the week: salmon law. Top Scots firm Thorntons Solicitors (in legal heaven since 1911) last month rocked the local market with its high-profile hire of Richard Blake – surely the country’s leading authority on the fast-emerging practice area of salmon fishing.

Blake apparently has more than 20 years’ experience of thrashing out netting rights while hip-deep in icy water, including an in-house stint with Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board.