Towards the closing months of the last millennium, a cocky young reporter walked into a chaotic office in Farringdon to join a new title called Legal Week.

The exact nature of its work eluded me – other than that it involved the legal profession – but I had a couple of years' business reporting experience and a compulsive streak which got me up to speed fairly quickly with this strange new community.

It was a competitive and lively world to cover. Competing against the military-tight organisation of the Sean Brierley-era Lawyer was invigorating and often brutal. I got to see much of the good of the industry and plenty of its seamier side.