Daily Diary

Hun, drawn and quartered

Posted 8/08/2007 by The Daily Diary

Few would dispute that the spate of Anglo-German mergers in the last decade has helped foster more cordial relations between the two Saxon nations – although perhaps not if you ask those Linklaters alumni spirited out the back exit a few years ago in the firm’s infamous Night of the Long Knives.

Despite 60 years having passed since the last war – enough time to be born, get a law degree and get booted out of Freshfields for being too old – one partner at a major City firm decided to engage in some light-hearted/actually quite racist horseplay at a partner get-together in Frankfurt.

Referring to the fiercely competitive domestic recruitment market, one German partner made the innocent but unfortunate observation that “we have a talent for war here”.

Seizing on the semantic faux pas, an English colleague retorted: “Well, at least for starting them!”

Perhaps the English partner will himself become a casualty of the so-called war for talent sooner rather than later.