Smart casual

“Casual” is not a lawyers’ word. When consultees highlight the “casual deployment of anecdote...as evidence” in purported justification of the government’s latest proposals for reform of judicial review—reforms, incidentally, that avowedly seek to restrict access to judicial oversight of the same Government's actions—it is not meant as a mark of approbation. Casual is the opposite of deliberate, careful, prepared. And the carefully-pressed chinos of the now seemingly ubiquitous dress-down Fridays of City law firms are, of course, the antithesis of casual—more care and planning has to go into the faux relaxed look of the Friday lawyer than into any number of chalk-striped suits from Ede and Ravenscroft.

So, when we booked in to the newly-opened Foxlow on St John Street in Clerkenwell and were told somewhat firmly that the dress code was casual, we had second thoughts. Not just because we did not have the time to plan suitable outfits. The penchant for informal so often translates into slapdash service, hard surfaces, noisy rooms and