Daily Diary

Condoms condemned

Posted 24/07/2007 by The Daily Diary

For all the convergence between UK and US rivals – similar profits, closing salaries and identical use of marketing speak – culture clashes can still crop up in the London offices of American law firms.

The shocked chairman of one US practice visiting his City subjects some time ago reportedly wondered if it was simply a “cultural thing” when he discovered vending machines in the toilets dispensing painkillers, toothbrushes and that indispensable client-winning item, the condom.

After a prompt statistical analysis by the ever-vigilant London managing partner revealed condom sales were actually higher in the ladies’ toilet than the gents’, the chairman ruled that the machine should be removed – until he was told cancelling the contract would cost his firm the princely sum of £250. The machine was therefore to be left in place until the contract expired.

Cut to the present day, however, and the machine remains – and continues, so The Diary is told, to do a very brisk trade indeed.