Daily Diary

No, Lovells, I expect you to die

Posted 7/06/2007 by The Daily Diary

Some law firm management teams will go to incredible lengths to keep their partners happy and, after a challenging few years, Lovells has risen to that challenge, according to, ahem, intelligence reaching the ears of The Diary.

Yes, Lovells last month dusted off the trusty Bond motif for its already-legendary summer party, with senior partner John Young leading a glittering cast of stars in a video filmed to accompany the event.

The video – shot in the firm’s Atlantic House command centre in the middle of a stormy night – saw Young as 007 and London managing partner Ruth Grant as 'M' battling Bond villains Odd-Job and Blofeld, played by property chief Bob Kidby and managing partner David Harris respectively.

Not content with gamely sending up its own the management – a hobby usually the preserve of ex-partners – the firm gilded the lily by accompanying the video with a cunningly redone version of the Tom Jones ‘classic’ Sex Bomb, wittily reworked as Sex Bond (do you see what they did there?).

The film ended with Bond successfully making it to his evening event with Young then walking on to the stage to kick off the real party.

What this says about the state of mind of Lovells’ management is hard to say, though the Diary had detected a whiff of global domination-mania around the firm’s recent strategy review.

Rumours that the roles reflect the real life relationship between Young and Harris were dismissed by the firm, with one partner gushing: “It was brilliant. I don’t think there would be many management teams prepared to make fools of themselves like this just to make their staff laugh.”

For once, The Diary is saying nothing.

Lovells' partner appraisals were getting a touch more rigorous