Crossing ideological swords with the boss is an inevitable part of working life, but few clash quite as spectacularly as Co Fermanagh solicitor Arlene Foster does with hers. Next Monday she will go head-to-head with James Cooper, senior partner at a law firm in Enniskillen, for the chance to compete for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone seat in the next UK general election. The vacancy follows the news that UUP MP Ken Maginnis is to step down.
It's a scenario that with a little tweaking could provide a plot line for Ally McBeal. "Things are extremely civilised in the office, but our clients and the local community find the whole thing very amusing," says Ms Foster (30) with a smile.
Ms Foster, honorary secretary of the UUP, and Mr Cooper, the party's vice-chairman, have managed to keep a lid on tensions in the run-up to the selection meeting where 420 UUP delegates will decide who is the best person for the job.
Aligned to the anti-agreement UUP faction, Ms Foster has worked with the pro-agreement Mr Cooper (50) for five years. "We have been at opposite ends of this tactical argument for the last 31/2 years and we have developed a methodology of dealing with that factor without it affecting the practice," he insists.
Watching them pose for a photograph together, it certainly doesn't appear that it's a case of client files at dawn. Ms Foster even jokes that the photo could be featured in a company brochure. So no stand-up rows or slamming doors? "Regrettably not, from the media's point of view," she laughs.
"Each of us perhaps will have an odd moment where we will cajole or mutter something at the other about the previous day's events but it goes no further than that and it is extremely good-natured," says Mr Cooper.
Ms Foster's political views mirror those of her friend and UUP colleague, Jeffrey Donald son MP, a staunch opponent of the Belfast Agreement, on issues such as police reforms and decommissioning.
"I'm not trying to bring down the assembly or anything radical like that but what I do see are the ambiguities in the agreement which have worked against the unionist people and many of them are concerned about the way it has been implemented," she says. She hopes delegates will see her as someone who can represent the diversity of the unionist view.
Married with an eight-month-old daughter - in a further twist her husband's uncle is the UUP's pro-agreement Environment Minister Sam Foster - the former Young Unionist rose rapidly through the party's ranks but the political path has been a little rockier since she adopted her anti-agreement stance. After studying law at Queen's University she was appointed one of only 14 UUP party officers at the age of 25.
"It has been said to me that if I was a good little girl I could have been a junior minister by now," says Ms Foster, who was not selected for the Assembly elections. "But at the end of the day I have to work with my own conscience and I am not going to be the politician that does things just for political power."
Meanwhile, Mr Cooper is hoping his experience as Mr Maginnis's election agent for the past 18 years will endear him to delegates. His grandfather, also James, was a Stormont MP and established the law firm in Enniskillen 90 years ago.
"It had got to the stage where I was asking myself was I going to continually be a back-room boy or am I to go forward, and I think I am in a position to do that." The father of three grownup children says he has had "very many" approaches from the party and grassroots members to put himself forward.
"The principal difference is that I believe the mechanisms set up under the agreement are the only realistic way to finding a way through Northern Ireland's problems," he says.
Why would he make a better MP than Arlene Foster? "I have more experience and I probably attract a wider base of support than Arlene . . . younger people sometimes learn through experience one has to work with the opposition and shape the future in a way the anti-agreement faction in this party has failed to do," he says.
Pundits predict the nomination could be close run despite the fact the constituency is pro-agreement territory. With anti-agreement UUP candidates such as David Burnside and Peter Weir having been selected elsewhere in the North, nobody is confident about calling the outcome. What is more certain is that Mr Cooper and Ms Foster will carry on working together, presenting a united front to clients, if not to delegates at Monday's meeting.