At 4.15am, in the reception area of a hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland, MinterEllison partner Peter Bartlett was perched over his laptop computer watching the result of the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial.

He had lived the case for the past five years, and wanted to be there for the finale. But he was on the other side of the world at the tail end of a holiday he had planned since before COVID-19 hit in 2020.