Sir Geoffrey Vos, chancellor of the High Court, couldn’t resist looking backwards as well as forwards in his inaugural Future of Law lecture in Chancery Lane. Before expounding on the brave new world of blockchain and artificial intelligence, he explained to a mainly youthful audience that he had learned his trade in an era of Tipp-Ex corrections on foolscap paper.

Rotary telephone

Too vulgar for the bar?

He recalled another detail from 1977, the year of his call: ‘Barristers hardly spoke to solicitors on the telephone – for reasons I never worked out.’

What other pithy observations might encapsulate the change in legal practice over a generation? Suggestions, please, to obiter@lawsociety.org.uk – a small prize for the best.

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