Canary WharfAs Clifford Chance (CC) finally begins to re-locate staff into its new Canary Wharf headquarters this month, the economic climate surrounding the move remains unrecognisable from the boom times of 2000 when the market-moving deal was sealed.

It seems clumsily symbolic that, as Canary Wharf became the London Stock Exchange’s worst performing property share earlier this month, CC was suspending July’s partner profit distribution and borrowing an extra £50m, apparently in part to cover some of the costs of its eastwards move.
The issue for CC is whether it has become saddled with its most expensive ever commitment at a time when the prolonged transactional slowdown and plummeting office rental market are beginning to turn against it.