It breaks the heart to imagine how Slaughter and May partners broke the news to their kids that they would only be getting one car/pony/moonon-a-stick each this Christmas – all thanks to those greedy associates wanting a bonus simply for working 90-hour weeks like the rest of us.

The festive frugality at One Bunhill Row has already claimed its first high-profile casualty in the form of the firm’s ever-popular water feature (you know, the pond in reception that visitors regularly used to walk into by mistake).