They braced themselves like naughty schoolchildren outside the headmaster’s office expecting a thrashing.

The Junior Lawyers Division was always on a hiding to nothing by electing to attend last week’s public session of the Solicitors Regulation Authority board. ‘Do we get to actually speak in the meeting?’ asked one whippersnapper, forgetting the unspoken SRA maxim that visitors should be seen but not heard.

This was the meeting when the SRA thwacked the final nail in the coffin of the trainee minimum salary, with each board member emphasising how difficult their decision had been before voting en masse for change. ‘This is going to hurt me more than it’s going to hurt you,’ was what headteachers traditionally said before administering six of the best.

For those who have never had the pleasure of the SRA board (which is virtually all of you) this was an unusually vocal public meeting, so much so that Obiter struggled to remember the names of those taking part. But one aspect was reassuringly regular: the session started almost an hour late. The SRA may have washed its hands of regulating salary, but it can always be relied upon for a delay.