Barbara Eastgate, policy executive for the professional ethics division at the Law Society, says: “After detailed consideration it was decided that our current legislation is adequate.”But in the 7th edition of the Guide to Professional Conduct of Solicitors, to be published by the Law Society next year, the phraseology of the current guidelines will be changed. As part of his attempted courtship he sent Gorman a salacious letter boasting about the size of his penis and was fined pounds 1,000 under the Post Office Act for sending obscene material. “The only thing that would satisfy me would be to see him struck off,” Gorman says. Although Gorman did complain to the SCB, Byron is still practising. “The event is over and in the past,” he says.The Law Society recommendations designed to prevent incidents like this have now been changed, but in a more minor way than Barnes would have wished. Anna Gorman was 21 and a single mother when she sought the help of Bedfordshire solicitor Chris Byron of Byron and Co.

She was trying to arrange maintenance for herself and her daughter but Byron became infatuated with her. “I absolutely adore her,” says James with a smile, “but it has not been easy.”Unfortunately not all relationships formed in the professional context are so equal. Each solicitor must decide for themselves.” Simon and Caroline have now been together for nearly 10 years themselves, but they are still persecuted by Caroline’s ex-husband who had all his complaints to the official bodies dismissed. “I don’t feel there was any kind of conflict of interest as I immediately passed the case to another firm. I was too in love to act objectively but I appreciate that for others that might not always be true. The Davises (also a pseudonym) had been married 10 years when Simon fell in love with Caroline Davis while his firm was initiating her divorce proceedings. Solicitor Simon James (not his real name), who wishes to remain anonymous to avoid the wrath of the ex-husband whom he describes as “a warped and vengeful maniac”, is not ashamed of his actions.

America has long been dealing with sexual transgressions within the law. In 1879 the Court of Appeals of New York disbarred an attorney who had acted in divorce proceedings for the husband. He spent the night in a hotel with his client’s wife “for the purpose of procuring evidence” to be used in the proceedings. Well, look what happened to defence lawyer Glenn Close in the thriller Jagged Edge when she sloped off to bed with her client (charged with wife murder) Jeff Bridges.

“A great deal of hope and faith is invested in their chosen advocate, who becomes for a short phase in their lives protector and champion. The opportunity for the lawyer to abuse that trust is obvious.”He wants to see solicitor-client relationships banned entirely, just as they are in California. The solicitor has to be alive to what his or her own feelings are towards the client’s predicament and has to be able to act properly. It is completely inappropriate to have a relationship with a client while representing them. How could you possibly be objective?”Robinson says she would welcome legislation in family law, agreeing with Mr Justice Thorpe, who sits in the High Courts family division, that divorce lawyers “are most exposed to the risks and temptations of entanglement” People fighting divorce battles are vulnerable, he says. “I suppose most people are happy about the friendships they form.”But Sarah Robinson of the Solicitors Family Law Association is less convinced.

“In the family law context we have had to run seminars for solicitors acting for clients whose emotions are raised. “We don’t get all that many,” says the bureau’s Zoe Etherington. Cooper is astonished Princess Diana has elected to use Butner. “If he can’t sort something out for me how he is going to sort something out for the future queen of England?”The SCB has had six complaints concerning solicitor-client relationships over the past year. Women in those situations are vulnerable and need protection.” She will soon be reimbursed for the stress she has suffered. The complaints’ bureau upheld three complaints of serious professional negligence and in its interim judgement against Butner concluded that “there were long and substantial delays” in sorting out Cooper’s case.