Daily Diary

Gifts from the gods

Posted 18/10/2007 by The Daily Diary

It’s not every day The Diary has cause to give thanks for lawyers’ largesse. After all, even the occasional 'freebie' lunch is usually on the understanding that your correspondent sneaks a complimentary line or two into stories about a firm into a story about how they’ve just laid off 40 support staff with only a rude email for thanks.

This week, however, your correspondent’s normally stony heart was touched by none other than Weil Gotshal & Manges London chief Mike Francies.

Concerned to learn that since being taken over by private equity house Apax, Legal Week hacks were finding themselves short of notebooks after a sudden bout of belt-tightening, Francies took matters into his own masterful hands and within hours had defied postal system and his own hectic schedule to courier over a bumper pack of A5 pads direct to LW’s Soho command-bunker.

Whether the gesture relates to Mike being named as our Deal Lawyer of the Year 2006 – and his chances of retaining the coveted gong next month – only the man himself knows… but he’s certainly not done his cause any harm.