Beiruting News

37-year-old human rights barrister Amal Clooney has raised eyebrows among the great and good of the law, including the Justice Minister, Edward Faulks QC.

'I'm sure she gets such high-profile cases and everyone wants her because she's married to George Clooney; and by employing her they'll give publicity to their case,' Lord Faulks tells me at a book launch in London.

'I mean, look at Cherie Blair: being married to Tony Blair didn't do her career any harm.'

The comments by the minister, whose brother is Birdsong author Sebastian Faulks, come just weeks after Clooney lost her high-profile press freedom case in Egypt, when her client, Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, was jailed for three years.