The gathering of a select group of fashion lawyers from around the world that I organize every year was about to begin, this time on a pleasant, sun-washed afternoon in Barcelona, the coastal capital of Catalonia, in eastern Spain. We had the usual frets about whether to cover the goodie bags with a table cloth until given away (we didn’t) and where to place the podium no one ever uses. This time would be different, however. I was staying at the Hotel El Palace, one of the greatest in all Spain, and we had also rented a function room that, as people came in, was correctly compared to something from the kind of romantic movie in which the earnest but dashing prince courts the reluctant princess under spreading chandeliers. Waiters served a formal tea in the English manner as four attorneys from three continents made brief and effective speeches on