When we commit 4,000-plus words to the state of a single law firm – as in this week’s analysis of Barlow Lyde & Gilbert – the subject tends to be going through a turbulent period, or at least major change.

Given that it’s our starting point when investigating such issues to provide the benefit of the doubt, this means that we will always go out of our way to see what successes there are to counter-balance the rather more obvious reverses.