“You don’t take this job if you’re thin-skinned,” Irving Picard once said of the arduous role he has now held for two years as the court-appointed trustee in the liquidation of Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities since the $65bn Ponzi scheme scandal erupted in late 2008.

The 69-year old lawyer was born in Fall River, a city in Massachusetts whose motto is "We'll try", coined in the aftermath of an 1843 fire. The attitude is one that could reasonably be applied to Picard himself as he continues with the complex business of recovering funds from the Madoff scandal and sifting through thousands of compensation claims.