Daily Diary

Under the influence

Posted 16/11/2007 by The Daily Diary

Projects lawyers at the City’s biggest firms might not really be feeling the love these days but there will have been at least one interested observer last month as news broke that infra king Graham Vinter was parting company with Allen & Overy. You see, Vinter has a mystery fan.

The Parisian blogger and self-styled “urban nomad” who calls himself *Chic uses his website to proclaim his belief in “truth, tolerance, humour, debate and humility through adventures in art, travel and human contact”.

So it may (or may not) surprise you to learn that *Chic includes none other than A&O’s Vinter on a list of the 50 most influential people in his life.

Vinter – described accurately if uninspiringly on the list simply as a “British lawyer” – sneaks on in 42nd place, one spot below former French prime minister Robert Schuman but above Turkish founding father Mustafa Kemal (43), some musician chap called Bach (45) and cunning linguist/master debater Noam Chomsky (47).

Higher up the bizarrely eclectic list can be found Kylie Minogue (35), Oprah Winfrey (10) and – we’re not making this up – Vinter’s fellow A&O partner David Lee (30).

Incidentally, Gallic philosopher Albert Camus comes out on top – indicating the sort of exalted company *Chic likes to keep. In his own head, anyway.

The question is, now our Graham has gone in-house, will he be moving up the list or down?