Watson, Farley & Williams has told its lawyers not to see the doctor during working hours.

Hong Kong office head Madeline Leong emailed fee-earners to encourage them to ignore that nagging chest pain and prioritise their billable hours:



The firm told RollOnFriday the partner's email "reflects common sense in a busy working office". Well maybe, but it doesn't really seem to reflect WFW's "‘be who you want to be’ culture – where there is no obligation to conform to a long established, corporate way of working"*. But presumably the firm had to respond to all those lawyers skipping 10am conference calls to visit A&E to deal with sore throats and dull lifeless hair. No longer.

A WFW lawyer sucks it up

Meanwhile, there is no need for a doctor to diagnose why WFW's London secretaries are looking peaky. The firm has just announced it is reviewing its "secretarial support function". In five weeks it will decide whether to restructure the team (translation: in five weeks it will announce a redundancy programme).

* © guff-powered section of WFW website.