Monday 31 December 2012 by Michael Cross

David Wootton, partner of magic circle firm Allen & Overy - and last year's Lord Mayor of London - is one of only a handful of solicitors to feature in the 2013 New Year honours list. Corporate finance specialist Wootton, who was admitted in 1975, receives a knighthood 'for services to legal business, charity and the City of London'.

No other solicitor in commercial practice is identified in the honours list, which is dominated by the 2012 Olympics. The games' legal side is not omitted, with Eleri Wones, deputy director, Treasury Solicitor's Department receiving the CBE for Legal services to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Therese Miller, general counsel of organisers LOCOG, receiving the OBE 'for services to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games'.

Elsewhere in the Government Legal Service, Isabel Letwyn, director, legal services at the Department of Health, receives a CBE for legal services to government.

Diane Burleigh, chief executive officer of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives since 1998, receives the OBE for services to the legal profession.