Daily Diary

One hundred dinners of solitude

Posted 1/11/2007 by The Daily Diary

Certain managing partners at major law firms can sometimes seem like fairly intimidating figures – not just to trembling legal hacks but also to all those at their own firm lower down the food-chain (pretty much everyone, then).

Simon Davies – the new chief at famously happy-clappy City giant Linklaters – is on a mission to change all that, with nary a group-hug in sight. While much of his recent time has been spent criss-crossing the globe in a bid to secure buy-in from the partners, Davies is also keen to ensure trainees don’t miss out on his messianic brand of managerial motivation.

To give the firm’s top brass a human face, Davies intends to take every single trainee qualifying in the London office out to dinner – a prospect presumably less worrying for the incoming managing partner than for the 100 or so newly-qualified lawyers who will be strictly on their best behaviour.