News that CMS Cameron McKenna is axing 16 staff, including five lawyers, did not come as a surprise to this column.

Just the other Friday, The Diary was sloping off home from Legal Week‘s Farringdon bunker past Camerons’ aluminium portico opposite the Barbican, when the peace was broken by a particularly boisterous Camerons associate who burst onto the pavement with a group of lackeys in tow. “When I make partner remind me to sack you all! Ha!” she roared, to the supine snorts of her male cohorts.