Your recent article on US law firms relates a 'surely apocryphal' story that appeared in a booklet a few years ago about a US lawyer who had a heart attack during a transaction (see [2005] Gazette, 21 July, 20).

The story is not apocryphal, and was related by one of my colleagues, albeit with some inaccuracies, to the person who compiled the booklet (Yanks A Million, published by a leading accountancy firm).


What actually happened was that, while setting up an English subsidiary for a US client, the chief financial officer, from whom I was taking instructions, suddenly stopped returning calls and responding to e-mails. After two weeks of radio silence, he left me a jaunty voicemail message, which I kept for so long and replayed so often that I can still recite it verbatim six years later: 'Hi Nigel, this is Charles. I'm sorry I've been out of touch for a couple of weeks, but I had a heart attack, which kinda slowed me down a little, but I'm back in the office now, so please give me a call when you get this message.'


Nigel Kotani, Salans, London