My fourth East Midlands meeting gets off to a good
start. I have accidentally dressed in
the corporate colours of the firm I am visiting. This brings instant approval, and softens the
blow about CIPA being rubbish on client accounts.
After the meeting, they show me round the corporate colour
scheme. I am so well camouflaged that
they almost lose me. Eventually they are
able to steer me back in the right direction – ie away from their offices – and
they hand me a mince pie to keep me going on the journey, which I think is
incredibly kind.
My mince pie and I set off for our final meeting. It is being held in what used to be the Derbyshire
county gaol. When the county gaol
closed, the Mayor of Derby went looking for some slightly more up-market
tenants but in the end he had to settle for patent agents and they have been
there ever since. Apparently there is
some graffiti in the basement, scratched into the door frames by the very first
patent agents who moved in. The graffiti
is, of course, impeccably punctuated. Or
perhaps I am mis-remembering that bit of the story.
Anyway I have a very nice picnic lunch and I talk to some
attorneys about the benefits of being involved with CIPA and we all have a good
laugh about that. People have expressed
concern that if they join a committee then their competitors will learn all
their secrets, shock horror, but I can reassure you, dear reader, that no-one
listens to anyone else in CIPA committee meetings so really you have nothing to
fear.
In between mouthfuls of crisps, I ask the attorneys whether they
value the status accorded by the CPA brand.
They remove the crisp crumbs from their eyes and reply that they value
it very highly and are extremely proud to be Chartered Pompous Attorneys. Their parents are proud of them too. But possibly their parents do not realise
they work in the county gaol.
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