There is an old joke in football circles that the full name of Accrington Stanley Football Club was in fact ‘Accrington Stanley Nil’, stemming from the poor run of results reportedly endured by that long-suffering, now-famous club.
Fans everywhere have long since accepted that their club will itself – at some point in their supporters’ purgatory – become the target of just such a waspish aspersion. Similarly, newcomers to the UK legal market could be forgiven for imagining Hammonds had recently changed its name to include the prefix ‘embattled national firm’, such has been the tone of coverage the struggling practice has received in recent times.
