If she loses her briefs as part of a deliberate business ploy,...

If she loses her briefs as part of a deliberate business ploy, then she may remain a female barrister, but certainly not a lady.

Staying off the NWH theme, it might interest you to know that in earlier times the word "lady" was restricted to a titled woman, with the male equivalent being "lord". Both words are derived from a bread-based economy thousands of years ago when society was divided into the boss who guarded the bread, his wife who made it, and the hangers-on who helped eat it. Bread in Anglo Saxon was usually called Hlaf, or loaf in today's language. Google "lady etymology" and "lord etymology), and see for yourself.

If one delved into Anglo Saxon (now usually called Old English), as curious idle folk do, one would learn the following:

• hlaf Bread, food, a loaf
• hláford: Lord, a master of servants, a male head of a household. The "ord" ending is a variation of "ward", usually written as "weard" meaning to guard.
• hlǣfdīge A lady, mistress of a house, such as the wife of a lord. The "dige" ending relates to "dough making".
• hláf-ǽta: A loaf-eater, domestic, servant.