NEIL ARMSTRONG’S threat to sue a barber if he does not return a lock of hair sold to a collector for $3,000 would not get far in Britain, according to Gary Slapper, Professor of Law at the Open University. It’s one thing taking hair or a tooth when the person is, say, under anaesthetic, which could be an assault, he says; but if the hair has been discarded it’s akin to putting out rubbish for collection — a clear sign that you no longer want it. There’s still no law to stop people stealing DNA in Britain, Slapper says, despite calls for one. “While in a pub here in 2002, Bill Clinton’s guards removed his empty pint glass to prevent it being swiped by DNA hunters.”

YOU know that you’re getting on a bit when new law firm partners start to look younger than you. So it could be disconcerting for any ambitious-but-yet-to-make-it thirtysomething who bumps into Piers Rake, of Reid Minty. The galloping young colt has just been made partner straight out of his training contract — at 28. Reid Minty’s partners really are getting younger: two others just made up were 35 and 31. At this rate, the firm’s best new talent will soon be turning up for work in short trousers. But sneer not — Law Diary thinks that the firm should be applauded for eschewing what it calls the “fixed traditional promotional track” to focus on individual performance. And the young Rake, who has a fine-art degree, is said to be a natural at client relationships.

NOW that judges have their own “ministry” there’s a host of Whitehall jobs on offer. The Judicial Studies Board is seeking two “monitoring and evaluation team leaders” (salary up to £31,950) and four “magistrate training evaluators” (£26,000). And judges will no doubt want a permanent secretary to run their mini-department. Did anyone cost the burgeoning bureaucracy involved in the Lord Chancellor’s judicial reforms?

LAWYERS can be quite creative — usually when dreaming up defences for their clients. Now they can put their creativity to literary use: Counsel magazine is sponsoring a poetry competition, entries to be no more than 20 lines “from tragic to comic, from verse to worse”, preferably on a legal theme. Entries will be judged by Mr Justice James Hunt, whose musings have graced these columns. E-mail Stephanie.hawthorne@lexisnexis.co.uk by June 20.

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