Daily Diary

O’Melveny mired

Posted 20/02/2008 by The Daily Diary

It’s been a mixed week at O’Melveny & Myers. The Los Angeles giant recently unveiled (on a gold plaque behind some large velvet curtains) its latest financials, with fees up a fair bit but profits flatter than a Shrove Tuesday pancake that’s only just come unstuck from the kitchen ceiling.

O’Melveny chief Arthur Culvahouse blamed the firm’s failure to treble the amount of wedge taken home by its partners on some “very substantial investments for the future in London, Asia and the US”.

Sadly, however, that investment doesn’t seem to have extended to the plumbing in the firm’s City garrison, which last week found itself underwater after a mystery flash-flood.

Fortunately, skipper Chris Ashworth was not forced due go down with the City ship due to being away on holiday when the disaster struck. However, the rest of the partners have been forced to retreat to their humble dwellings, where half-term means they are fairly unlikely to have got much done.

With O’Melveny’s offices residing on the fourth floor of their hired ivory tower, it’s probably best not to think too hard about where exactly the water – which Ashworth’s PA, who is still picking up the phone, is brave enough to face – is coming from.

Floodgates Fielder: a City partner heads for work