German people sometimes get a bad reputation for being cold and unemotional, but this is simply not the case. If anything, the average German lawyer is far more highly strung than us dull Brits.

The other day a German partner from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer told The Diary that the honourable men and women from the former Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Loeber were terribly offended that their new firm was described as an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ firm. As one aggrieved partner said: “It hurts us”.