Press digs deep to keep Clifford chance in firing line

It never rains but it pours for Clifford Chance, as last week's notorious 'bill padding' scandal showed no signs of dying down.

The controversy - the result of a leaked memo sent by five associates in the firm's New York office, in which they claimed that the practice's 2,420 hour annual billing target encouraged the padding of hours (see [2002] Gazette, 31October, 3, 10) - rumbled on in the press last week.

The Financial Times (29 October) - which featured the story on the front page for three days running - claimed that solicitors' bills were 'set to become more transparent'.

Firms were 'braced for calls from clients' who would 'ask more questions about their bills' and 'demand fuller explanations', and some lawyers admitted that 'billing practices would probably have to change'.

The paper showed a curious lack of understanding of the way the big firms work, with one of its front page stories being that associates working for the firm in Europe are also given specific annual client billing targets (29 October), and suggesting that rigid billing targets are not the norm elsewhere in the US.

In turn, not exactly news and not exactly right.

Damage limitation aside, it seemed that not many tears were being shed for the world's largest law firm in its hour of trouble.

The Financial Times claimed in an editorial that 'the picture conjured up this week of Clifford Chance's New York branch operating like a highly paid sweatshop while padding bills to clients must have confirmed many a prejudice about the profession' (30 October).

However, the episode 'does raise wider questions about the way professional firms are managed and the wisdom of ambitious mergers in people businesses'.

It urged corporate clients to 'ensure that they get value for money - with clients in the driving seat, law firms have come under the same pressure as other suppliers'.

The Observer (3 November) leapt on the bandwagon, but took a more kindly view towards the beleaguered firm.

'Clifford Chance vigorously denies any wrongdoing, and in fairness there is little sign of trouble yet,' it says reassuringly.

Although this is not for lack of trying, as the paper went on to say that 'we contacted a number of Clifford Chance's British clients and only one said that it would raise the matter with the firm'.

A more gleeful approach came from the Guardian, which - while discussing the heavy billing targets - pointed out that 'even factoring in the allegedly macho working culture among corporate lawyers, it remains quite absurd that any professional could consistently concentrate on specific client work for such a period'.

The paper claimed that lawyers are 'on some levels at least', like every other office worker across the world: 'they fart around on the Internet sending e-mails, and they chat to their colleagues occasionally about nothing in particular'.

It concluded by smirking that 'Clifford Chance is the biggest law firm in the world.

It is a fair bet that it will not be so for long'.

It was also a bad week for Fiona Shackleton, known as the 'steel magnolia', and partner at Payne Hicks Beech, better known as Prince Charles's lawyer - who 'is expected to be made a scapegoat for the sensational collapse of the Paul Burrell trial' (Mail on Sunday 3 November).

According to the newspaper, the 'blonde 46-year-old mother of two' is being blamed 'for advising the Prince to acquiesce in the police investigation against the former royal butler'.

In the final paragraph, it quoted a friend of Ms Shackleton saying: 'It is terribly unfair if Fiona is being made a scapegoat.

To try and blame her for the collapse of the trial is simply not right.'

And finally, London's Evening Standard (28 October) highlighted a psychological survey which claims that the job you do is reflected in the way you work out in the gym.

For example, managing directors 'are used to having their own way - they strut around and won't listen to people telling them how to use the machines'.

Barristers 'will be aggressive and go for the burn because they are so extrovert'.

Solicitors, however, tend to be 'conservative, and always follow the same routine every time they go to the gym'.

Rumours that City solicitors regularly 'pad' their hours spent on the treadmill are entirely unfounded.

Victoria MacCallum