It seems food has been deemed one luxury too many by CC mandarins, who have slimmed down the operating hours of its onsite delicatessen and restaurant, as well as ditching the 50% subsidy for staff, effectively doubling the price of meals at its Canary Wharf citadel.

In a statement to the firm, it was explained that hungry lawyers can also expect a 6% rise in prices at the restaurants, bar and vending machines – marginally above the 4% pay-rise the City titan last week gave its associates.

Transport has also taken a hit, with iron-fisted London supremo Jeremy Sandelson revoking taxi privileges due to rising fares.

Expect pay-per-view know-how databases and toll-operated elevators to be rolled out in coming months as belts are tightened, not loosened.

“We cannot answer what we want to,” he mad-libbed when pressed about a mooted takeover of rival gold-digger ENRC. “Otherwise Charlie [Jacobs] say, ‘Mr Kim, shut up!’”.

Rumours that Jacobs is set to release his own tribute to The Prodigy’s seminal dance hit Charly are surely too far-fetched even for The Diary to ‘repeat’. Or not.

If a Khazak billionaire offers you sweets, say no

In the UK the bed-hopping is altogether more uneasy – Lord Goldsmith and Debevoise notwithstanding – hence The Diary’s consternation upon hearing of some shameless politicking going on at one major City firm.

Your correspondent this week heard (from some very good sources) that more than one partner at CMS Cameron McKenna – hardly the most blue-blooded of City firms – was literally doing the rounds Zimbabwean-style and instructing their underlings to vote Boris in the recent mayoral election. And it obviously worked, although how grateful millions of Londoners will be in a few months’ time remains to be seen.

While it remains unclear whether nervous NQs were frog-marched to the polling stations under partner-level supervision, should recently-departed chief Dick Tyler consider a run for mayor in 2012 he can probably count on a fair bit of support from the Camerons ranks.

Which may explain an incident your correspondent observed on a bus outside the offices of one very large City firm the other day, when a serious-looking chap in pinstripe got into a shouting match with the driver because he wouldn’t let him off between stops. The poor darling had to – you won’t believe this – actually wait for the next stop before walking all of 20 yards back to his office.

‘Admin’ is the promisingly-titled new pilot COMING SOON!! to BBC Three and follows the zany goings-on at (fictional, we think) Manchester law firm Fox Carter & Co.

However, not unlike law firms, as soon as one TV network has a bright idea, it’s subject to the attentions of innumerable copycat wannabes. The Diary can hereby reveal just some of the legal-themed sit-coms reportedly in the pipeline at rival broadcasters:

• The Fall and Rise of Christopher Perrin – the executive partner of a global law firm loses his job but finds something much more important: the paperclips.

• To The Manges Born – starring Penelope Keith as Mike Francies and Peter Bowles as Marco Compagnoni, can the unlikely duo somehow keep the peace?

• Fawlty Trowers – a madcap hotelier targets the crucial Middle East energy sector, with hilarious consequences.

• Bird & Bird of a Feather – a pair of recently-divorced housewives look to broaden their intellectual property expertise into a cross-sector transactional capability. With hilarious consequences.

• Best Friends – six trendy young independent law firms hang out in a New York coffee house and discuss dating, parenthood and competing in an era of globalised legal services.

• Lovells Thy Neighbour – revival of  controversial 1970s culture-clash comedy about a West Indian family that moves in next door to a top 10 City law firm. What’s going to happen?!

• In Simmons And In Health – a grouchy and actually quite racist pensioner, played by Warren Mitchell, falls foul of new anti-discrimination laws. With hilarious etc.

• Til Death Us Do Partner – not really a comedy as such, just a bunch of associates moaning about how they’ll never get promoted now there’s a downturn.

• Some Mothers Do Avocado Rechtsanwaelte – a bumbling but lovable German independent firm-- (that’s enough law firm sitcoms – Ed.)

Now the firm has been hit by another technological terror, becoming the latest City outfit to fall victim to the curse of the ‘phishers’ – including unscrupulous cyber-squatters who hijack respectable email addresses for their own illicit purposes.

It happened to Nabarro a while back and has now spread to Spitalfields, meaning unsuspecting inboxes have been bombarded with emails purporting to come from A&O partners – including senior partner David Morley – requesting cash for services rendered.

Rest assured, however, that despite the credit crunch A&O is not quite that hard up just yet, so – tempting as it may be – try to resist the urge to wing over a few quid for that telling banking advice you didn’t actually get.

Whether A&O client Research In Motion received any suspect emails on the collective BlackBerry located in its famously deep pockets is not yet known…

Yes, you heard it here first – hosties are being corralled into staffing law firm receptions around the City. Sick of the surly grads and ageing Essex types who have customarily manned the phones in bored fashion, sources say firms are increasingly looking to those doyennes of customer service – the waitresses in the sky – to do the job.

Their perma-smiles, perma-tans and ability to detect trainees using the lavatories for all the wrong reasons are apparently winning over front-office recruiters throughout the legal fraternity. And rumour has it rival managing partners who have not yet made the switch are whispering 'doors to manual' in the ears of those who have bought in to the new trend.

Whether Dentons will be targeting Easyjet staff – whose gaudy tangerine branding offers clear synergies with that of the City stalwart – remains to be seen.

Earlier this month Watson sealed his latest glamour move, this time to City pace-setter CMS Cameron McKenna – just days after daughter Emma turned 18.

Although being closely related to Camerons’ newest star signing really ought to be glory enough, readers may already know that Emma is carving out her own unobtrusive niche as a movie star of global repute, having earned millions as schoolgirl sorceress Hermione in the Harry Potter flicks.

Now Emma (also reportedly a keen angler, bizarrely) has entered the metaphorical magic circle of adulthood, she can finally get her hands on some of that fortune – meaning Watson Snr might want to see if Camerons has any private client specialists still lurking in its corridors.

Last week Allen & Overy (A&O) emerged victorious from one such event – Germany’s prestigious ‘best secretary’ award, which was claimed by top A&O blotter-jotter Marc-Oliver Schlichtmann.

Schlichtmann, who is based at A&O’s Hamburg office, became the first bloke to scoop the coveted gong, striking a blow for the 2% of German secretaries that are male.

However, this column was surprised more by the fact that the winner works for a law firm. After all, most legal secretaries can’t even take down a number correctly – unless there’s some other explanation for all those partners not returning The Diary’s calls.

A mole reports that a silk acting for one of the banks got so bored he actually left court and went to rest his weary bones at his cottage in Scotland, leaving his junior to man the fort. When asked by the client where his silk was, the junior replied that he had “gone to the loo”.

Earlier this year The Diary revealed how a team of tough-nuts from Jones Day were running the Paris and London marathons in successive weekends – and cycling the 300 miles between them to boot. Well, they did it – and you can contribute to the £100,000 they hope to raise for Cancer Research UK here.

Clifford Chance senior associate Kirsty Devonport did only the one marathon last month (bit slack, that) but at least it was in horribly unsuitable conditions. She completed the self-styled World’s Coolest Marathon at the North Pole in aid of Leukemia Research in temperatures of almost minus-30 degrees Celsius.

Only marginally less frightening, Hill Dickinson assistants Alex Saxty, Marie Sundell and Laura Alston will be attempting the Three Peaks challenge later this year, which involves slogging up Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Helvellyn (it’s in Wales, apparently) in a single helicopter-assisted weekend.

Finally, and perhaps least plausibly, Ian Down, a partner at West End firm Hamlins, will be swimming around Malta next month in search of loot for the Light Fund. Apparently the dangers include “poisonous jellyfish” and “sunburn”, although presumably not so much in the full-body wetsuit he'll be sporting for the event.

Indeed, it seems likely that at least a few of the Clintonistas backing Hills for the White House are motivated in part by a yearning for the second coming of the saxophonist former Prez and legendary non-inhaler.

Meanwhile, Hammonds has just named its first-ever chief operations officer, Sue Nickson – whom Hammonds enthusiasts may know is the wife of former senior partner Richard ‘Montgomery’ Burns, who stepped down from the national firm’s top job in 2006 mid-way through his second term.

Whether Richard joined her on the campaign trail prior to her appointment is not yet known.

The ‘highlight’ of his recent farewell do was being serenaded by Celtic X-Factor also-ran Rhyddian Roberts – whose brother, serendipitously, is a trainee at the City firm.

Still, a colourful character like Tyler will surely be missed. Famously, his hobbies include beating up All-Blacks on the rugby field (okay, he played them once, as student, many moons ago) and crashing fast cars, with dastardly Dick reportedly having run through more flash motors than The Diary has had hot dinners.

However, as befitting one destined for law firm management, Tyler is also capable of playing his cards close to his chest when needed. Indeed, so discreetly did he woo his future wife (also of Camerons), colleagues apparently never suspected love was in the air – or even that they were dating – until their engagement was announced in the national press.

Meanwhile, successor Duncan Weston is also keeping busy. His wife, Candy, has just popped out Weston Junior number four.

But now the firm has to put up with moaning from a new constituency, as famed street artist Banksy has been at work just around the corner from Slaughters’ Bunhill Row command bunker. Banksy’s street-corner legend proclaims that ‘London isn’t working’ in a clear critique of Slaughters’ City-centric approach.

Obviously, while the identity of Banksy is an even more closely guarded secret than Slaughters’ PEP, your correspondent can’t be entirely sure that this is a genuine work from the sloganeering satirist. In the meantime, The Diary will be watching out for any Clifford Chance partners lurking around Moorgate with an aerosol and an impish impression.

Thirty teams will be taking part (and taking each other apart) in this year’s competition, which is held in sunny Lisbon from 18th-20th April and is organised for the legal and financial services sectors by London sports agency Top Corner.

Among those chasing trophies instead of trophy clients are magic circle glory-hunters Clifford Chance and Linklaters, plus plucky mid-table City outfit Olswang and international powerhouse Baker & McKenzie. Meanwhile, shin-pads will be at the ready in case of any crunching late tackles from contentious specialist Edwin Coe.

Last year a team of galacticos from Ashurst’s Madrid office clinched the top prize – the second occasion on which they’ve waltzed off with the silverware... as if having a kickabout with your mates on the Cote D’Azur somehow wasn’t reward enough in itself.

While competition between firms promises to be fiercer than a rabid derivatives lawyer, doubtless all will be hoping the profession’s brave boys can stick it to the likes of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which will be flying the flag – possibly a white one – for the accountancy trade.

The Diary will be donning its John Motson-style sheepskin and other antiquated clichés to bring you the very best coverage of the prestigious tournament next week.

Apparently teams are already signing up for the 2009 competition, while this year’s underperformers will doubtless follow the golden rule of both football management and law firm leadership, which has served England’s top clubs and its top legal advisers so well over the years – if at first you don’t succeed, sign your opponents’ best players.