The fast-and-loose culture of some US deal machines is a welcome shift from the stuffy confines of the City – and a far cry from the Freshfields dress code, which prohibits certain shirt colours and bans female lawyers from entering the office without a ‘neck feature’ to divert attention from – or possibly to – their decolletage.
However, The Diary – itself not normally a stickler for tradition – was somewhat shocked last week when a fact-finding phone call to one partner at a leading national firm was suddenly interrupted by the sound of said partner indulging in a well-earned toilet break of epic proportions.
