London lawyers are spicing up their love lives and George Clooney is following suit

As a top London barrister is spotted on a date with George Clooney, Susannah Butter finds she’s not the only brief having encounters
7 November 2013

He is Hollywood royalty and has his pick of eligible women. But George Clooney’s latest lady is not an actress or model, as is the custom. He has been seen stepping out in London with Amal Alamuddin, a top barrister. She is currently representing Julian Assange in his extradition proceedings with Sweden and specialises in international law, human rights, extradition and criminal law. Kofi Annan is a fan — she’s advising him on Syria.

Alamuddin, 35, and Clooney, 52, found time in their demanding schedules to go out for dinner at Berners Tavern in Fitzrovia, with Alamuddin donning some glittery silver wedge boots for the occasion. No wonder she has also been named hottest UK lawyer by the authority that is Yourbarristerboyfriend.tumblr.com. Her entry on the site begins: “Amo, Amas, Amal. These are three short words that come to mind when thinking about this dazzling beauty.”

She’s not the only hot, ready legal. Carine Patry Hoskins and David Sherborne found love after the Leveson Inquiry. Counsel to the inquiry Patry Hoskins, 40, known on Twitter as “woman on the left” because she sat beside Robert Jay, was looking past Hugh Grant, and at the man by his side, lawyer Sherborne, 44.

Unbeknown to Lord Leveson, twice-divorced Sherborne and raven-haired Patry Hoskins jetted off to the Greek island of Santorini together only days after the public hearings concluded in August last year to discuss their relationship.

Of course lawyers are allowed to have sex. So what makes their libidinous adventures exceptional? “Law is a high-stress profession, with long hours and highly intelligent people who generally enjoy risk,” says one criminal barrister who asked not to be named. “They’re going to screw each other. Sex is stress- relieving.”

“Christening the wig” is one ritual he tells me about. “When you get your wig you’ve got to shag in it. You get more kudos if you do it with a cop.”

As the number of female barristers has grown, all sorts of possibilities have opened up in an industry supposed to defend reason free from passion.

“Lawyers were usually the geeks at school who weren’t very lucky with girls,” says Alex Aldridge, editor of the website Legal Cheek. “So when they find themselves in a high-status job, earning lots of money and getting lots of attention late in life, they do crazy things.”

A certain senior lawyer who is now happily married to one of the highest paid barristers in the country used his charm to solve a housing crisis. He had nowhere to live when he was in his thirties so he went from one colleague’s bed to the next.

In choosing an actor, Alamuddin is unusual. She works in an industry where it’s common for lawyers to woo fellow lawyers. If two get romantically involved they have to inform the clerk of their chambers. But it’s easy for clerks to become embroiled in arrangements, and even for lawyers to make passes at them.

“We are close to the barristers and arrange everything for them,” says a clerk who has been in the business for more than 30 years. “So they’ll know if you’re getting a taxi and not meeting your wife. When my head of chambers was working in Nice I had to routinely book helicopter flights so he could fly his mistress in without his wife noticing.”

Another had to tick off a senior silk for getting too close to his female junior in meetings. “The client complained that they weren’t concentrating on the case. He took my advice on board.”

But clerks are different, he tells me. “Lawyers have and will always have a lot of sex. I’ve had lawyers of both sexes putting pressure on me, they’re ruthlessly predatory. I’ve declined. Generally we’re different types. Lawyers have a specific type of mind. They compartmentalise and can’t see the wrong in their actions. One judge had to be transferred because he was screwing the usher at court.”

Sometimes, lawyers do want a break from each other. Extramarital dating site Illicit Encounters has more lawyers listed than any other profession and there’s a story about a top City law firm partner claiming £350 on expenses for prostitutes. But, I’m told, “often, fellow lawyers are more attractive because they’re the only people willing to listen to stories about the job”.

The surroundings help. “This is a cut above a snog at the office Christmas party,” one silk tells me. “If you go to the Middle Temple Revels, you’ve all had a few drinks, the candles are flickering. It’s one of the most romantic rooms in Britain.”

And the circumstances of the job drive lawyers into each other’s beds. Lawyers are often away for long periods on cases. A silk says: “Between having a flat at your inns of court and going away for work there’s a hell of a lot of opportunities to have sex. It’s a shame not to exploit them. The ‘what happens on tour stays on tour’ rule applies. The job can be all-consuming and that includes sex. A married silk I know ended up having an affair with a junior while on a case in the Caribbean. He was much older than her and it all went horribly wrong.”

Relationships between master, or mistress and pupil are common, and age gaps are overlooked — George Carman, one of the leading QCs in the Nineties, was often seen with a beautiful lawyer many years his junior on his arm. “By the time you’re a pupil you’re at the very least 21 years old,” says one barrister. “It’s nobody’s business who you sleep with. Of course people in positions of power can take advantage of others, but by the same token it can be perfectly innocent. Although the legal world is small so you have to beware.”

But back to Alamuddin. She is an incredibly talented woman, with an enviable CV. George Clooney had better treat her right. Otherwise he will have to contend with the strong arm of the law. And Julian Assange.

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