The work of the legal correspondent is a far cry from the world of the tabloid journalist.

Legal correspondents are not to be found on stake-outs of the houses of errant politicians or confronting football managers with evidence of their infidelity.Correspondents cover the legal news for their papers but what does the work really entail? Is it one long merry-go-round of lavish entertainment? Or is it something different? To find out I interviewed Frances Gibb, The Times legal correspondent, while she was attending the Law Society national conference.Newspapers seem to have quietly dropped the reference to 'affairs'; presumably since the job title 'Royal affairs correspondent' took on a new meaning.Ms Gibb's work bears many resemblances to the work of a solicitor: she attends an office and has to deal with difficult work while being distracted by telephone calls and interruptions.

There are strict deadlines to meet and there will be complaints if there are any mistakes.

Having one's work scrutinised by virtually the whole legal profession every day demands particularly high standards of accuracy.She has responsibility not only for covering legal news for The Times but for editing a page and a half of legal features each week and the legal diary, writing le gal features and even writing occasional editorials.

As if this were not enough, she is only employed on a part-time basis.

I asked how she does all this as well as looking after her three sons aged 11, nine and five.'It's not easy, and you have to cut some things out.

I haven't got the time to go to the pub after work because I have to get home to the children.

Although I am just supposed to come into the office four afternoons a week there are times such as the national conference when I have to work not only full-time but go away for several days.

I have a nanny to look after the children but obviously as soon as the conference is over I like to get back home.'Her husband is a consultant and the family has moved from Dulwich to a house in Oxshott, nearer her husband's hospital.

Her husband's promotion has meant one other change to their lifestyle.

'We have been able to move up to wine costing more than £4 a bottle.'Having small children can be a problem at times; there was even one emergency when she had to take a child into the Court of Appeal.Many a telephone interview has been conducted against the deadline of a baby's attention span.

'Once I had to interview Lord Hailsham while I had the baby with me.

I planned for this in advance and had a handbag full of toys that the baby had not seen before.'I put him on the floor and let him have the new toys hoping that this would keep him quiet.

As soon as I started the interview, the baby started crying.

The noise rapidly built up to a full-scale crescendo.

Lord Hailsham seemed totally impervious and just carried on regardless.'Until Ms Gibb took over from Marcel Berlins as The Times legal correspondent in 1982, the job had traditionally been held by a lawyer.

Although Ms Gibb is the daughter of a Gray's Inn solicitor, she read English at university, taking a first.

Her first job was as a researcher, followed by jobs as a reporter on the Times Higher Education Supplement, the art sales correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and then as a general reporter on The Times before being appointed to her present position at the age of 31.Not being a lawyer has caused her the odd problem.

'I once telephoned Mr Justice Harman to ask him about a delay in delivering a judgment in a case.

He paused and asked me if I was a member of the Bar? I said "no" and there was a longer pause.

He then asked me if I was a solicitor.

Again I replied "no" to which there was an even longer pause before he replied with evident disdain: "But I thought you were The Times legal correspondent."' Upsetting Mr Justice Harman has not however prevented her from being awarded the Bar Council newspaper journalist of the year award.As a specialist correspondent, she is expected to find her own stories.

Some of these arise out of what are called 'Diary items' such as a conference or a similar event that has been organised in advance.

Some of her stories come from contacts in the profession.Other stories arise out of retirements or resignations and can to some extent be planned in advance.

'Senior legal appointments usually involve a news story ahead of the appointment saying who the likely candidates are.

At that stage I get background information on them and when the appointment is made I can write a story at short notice because all I then need to do is to ask professional contacts for their comments on the appointment.' Ms Gibb finds that very few barristers are prepared to go on the record and say anything significant about a newly appointed senior judge.

'They are very cautious.

Even those few who are good at encapsulating a person in a single sentence often do not want the quotation to be attributed to them.'However, judges themselves are much more open than they were a few years ago.

'It really was a remarkable change when Lord Taylor was appointed Lord Chief Justice to have him call a press conference and actually be prepared to answer questions from the press.'Despite the importance which The Times gives to reporting legal news, there is no specific allocation of news story space for it.

'With any story I file there is no guarantee that it is going to be used.

Each item of news is evaluated for its worth by the news editor and has to compete with other news stories filed by other correspondents.' Many lawyers would cringe at having to work under these conditions.

It is the equivalent of having to submit work to clients in competition with other solicitors and waiting to see if the work is used.Staff journalists get their salaries paid whether or not a piece of copy is used or not but any journalist who does not supply copy which is used regularly can start looking for another job.

Lawyers often complain about having a bad press, but given the ferociously competitive nature of journalism, it is small wonder that some legal procedures and traditions are seen by the press as indefensible.This element of competition is also seen in the Tuesday legal pages which Ms Gibb edits.

The bulk of the material is supplied by outside contributors.

She admits to being inundated with suggestions for articles both from professional journalists and from lawyers.Feature pages have to be prepared in advance to fit in with the volume of advertising booked each week but still have to be topical.

This means difficult decisions have to be taken on the basis of what is most likely to be topical in a week or a fortnight's time.

Columns in these pages are contributed by two regular columnists and several less regular contributors such as myself.

The columns are headed by unflattering caricatures which depict David Pannick QC as having nostrils like foghorns and me as scruffy and overweight.The main feature articles are partly commissioned and partly as a result of suggestions by contributors.

These can involve a substantial amount of work by Ms Gibb as often they require editing to fit to the size of space allotted.

'I like contributors to write a little more than is actually needed to allow the piece to be edited down to size.

It is easier to take something out than have to put something in, but they often write almost double what's needed.'Although The Times has gone entirely electronic in its composition, Ms Gibb confesses to sticking to time honoured techniques for filing copy.

'Although when I am in the office I type the copy onto a wordprocessor and then it goes into the system, when I am out of the office I prefer to avoid using a portable wordprocessor because the batteries are liable to fail at the most inconvenient moment.

Instead, I write out my copy and then phone it through to the paper.

The Times has excellent copytakers who can take it down at speed.'I can vouch for this.

I once had to dictate a piece through to the paper on solicitors losing documents and the copytaker, while taking it down at mesmerising speed, was able to comment: 'Aren't solicitors just hopeless, their desks are always in such a mess that it's surprising that they don't lose everything.'Ms Gibb admits that her desk is always piled high with paper.

Not only does she have to deal with large volumes of unsolicited articles and press releases, but also with te lephone calls from public relations firms.

She can find these calls irritating.

'They are not just content with getting you to interview the client; they want to know the exact day it will appear.

It's not uncommon for them to start by asking what day the law articles are published!'Lawyers are usually less trouble than public relations consultants but find journalism less rewarding than their professional work.One barrister volunteered an article only to withdraw once he found out how much he would get paid if it was accepted.

Plainly there are advantages on being on the side of the fence where you get paid even if the clients do not like what you tell them.