Journalists are certainly no shirkers when it comes to blagging the occasional freebie or three. Indeed, several Diary spies have
not actually paid for one meal since first being admitted to the Legal Week command beacon.

But nothing quite compares to the dedication to the ligging lifestyle shown by canny in-housers in the private equity econo-sphere.

Claire Wilkinson, founder of in-house networking group the Private Equity Lawyers Forum, recently batted her eyelashes at former firm Slaughter and May – apparently not exactly famed in the in-house community for its generous entertaining – and managed to convince the top-flight M&A shop to stump up a plush three-course meal for the entire group.

Whether the in-housers were given their own personalised napkin-holders in classic Slaughters silver is not yet known.