Legal Village

A feast in every sense

Posted 22/04/2008 by Bill Knight

Last week we held a banquet at the Mansion House to celebrate 100 years of the City Solicitors Company. It was packed – 350 diners crammed the Egyptian Hall. Magnificent was the word. Magic circle meets Harry Potter.

There were trumpeters, a loving cup and we were clapped in (and clapped out!) to music. David Lewis, the Lord Mayor, is also the Company’s junior warden. The Egyptian Hall looked magical as the daylight faded and the chandeliers glowed. Our principal guest, Sir David Clementi, said: "If this is the Junior Warden’s house I would like to see the house of the Senior Warden."

I spoke about 50 years of peace and the immense expansion it had brought to the City profession; the Lord Mayor wondered why we made things so difficult for ourselves with non-dom taxation and the restrictions on foreign lawyers; and Sir David cautioned us against rapid structural change. The trumpeters trumpeted and the guests enjoyed themselves. The dress code was white tie and decorations and the wife of the director-general of the CBI wore her bronze life-saving star.

My sister in law, who lives in New York, asked me subsequently what I wore. "Fur robes and a chain," says I. "Very ghetto," says she.

It was a success. We had to throw the remaining guests out when the Mansion House closed for the night. One of the former senior partners said to me afterwards that there are not many slap-up occasions to celebrate our profession. I am very glad I had the honour of presiding over one of them.