Fashionable law

The world of fashion nuzzled up to the law last week as London Fashion Week hit town and Somerset House was taken over by a rich mix of fashionistas and the media.

Meanwhile, the smartarati barristers from the Temple ensured they got a look in, too, as they progressed to chambers from Waterloo (although, sadly, no show was dedicated to the rumoured new gowns to be worn by members of the Supreme Court).

Yes, the next thing that a fashion designer needs after a creative surge is a lawyer to advise on how to protect and exploit it. So welcome to the catwalk Davenport Lyons, which had teamed up with Colin McDowell, of Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden, to produce The Look, The Law & The Knowledge, an introductory guide to young designers on the legal basics for creative business.

That said, there can’t be many legal texts that feature a glamorous shot of Donatella Versace on the introductory page but they haven’t put La Versace on page 3 of The Look, The Law & The Knowledge as just a pretty face. “From the outside [fashion] may look like it is all about the red carpet and features in Vogue,” she writes. “But that is just a beautiful mirage. The reality is much less glamorous and much more serious.”

By which she means afternoons with Adam Glass, the Davenport Lyons partner specialising in rights protection, sorting out unregistered community design rights. But take heart. In the words of Giles Deacon, the designer: “Think of the business side as a creative thing rather than a chore.”

No way USA

We may have reached the bottom of the recession but the results of the opinion survey conducted by GRS and Kinsey Allen as part of their legal compensation report suggest that many lawyers are still feeling anxious about their jobs.

As many as 46 per cent of those surveyed remain “quite nervous” or “very nervous” about job security while 44 per cent say that their firm would consider fixed fees — as against hourly billing — as a fee model in the near future (a clear sign that market realism is starting to enter lawyers’ thinking about how they charge). Very interestingly, American firms are now viewed with deep suspicion. Four out of five lawyers say they would not move to a US firm for better money. How things change.

Fast track

I see that the College of Law’s think-tank, the Legal Services Policy Institute, is calling for completion of the Legal Practice Course to mark qualification as a solicitor. And why not? What works for the Bar Vocational Course should be good enough for the Law Society.

Launch pad

Congratulations to Steve McNab, head of environment at Travers Smith, for starting Leapfrog, a pro bono network providing advice to businesses engaged in reducing carbon emissions. At last an initiative that is not hot air.

edward.fennell@yahoo.co.uk

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