One senior M&A lawyer was exposed last week after attempting to reply to a query from a Legal Week hack while at the races.

The reason lawyers so frequently fail to return calls, it seems, is not due to meetings at all, but because they are too drunk to hold a coherent conversation.

The e-mail to the managing partner of the firm is thought to have read something similar to: "Please can you return this call… me too busy… me too many Pimms." Busted.