Daily Diary

Spring cleaning at Castle Greyskull

Posted 25/05/2007 by The Daily Diary

Much of the media has never quite got its collective head round the fact that some lawyers, at least nominally, are real people. Note the fascination displayed by tabloids, broadsheets and those free papers you get on the Tube whenever a City lawyer performs what would for most people be a fairly mundane task – sending an email to the wrong person, say, or dousing body fluids over a colleague’s shoes.

Earlier this week venerable organs such as The Times and thelondonpaper were falling over themselves in amazement that Linklaters was hoping to get valuable members of staff (and some trainees) to… wait for it… help clean the office.

In classic Silk Street fashion, the City cash-magnet sent a memo outlining precise minute-by-minute instructions for staff - including partners, apparently - to assist with the “spring cleaning initiative”, which is due to take place this afternoon (25 May).

With five minutes allocated to “remove unwanted stationery” and a further 300 seconds to “remove all know-how items”, there is clearly little chance for young lawyers to be found padding those timesheets.

Still, The Diary has taken time out from a busy day’s work to highlight others stories that have caught his eye, including the Wall Street Journal’s “Sullivan & Cromwell seccies clean out the shitter” scoop and the FT scorcher “Freshfields issues 40-page chip-butty etiquette guide”.

Links' cosy Silk Street hub gets ready for a sprucing-up