There's been a double kicking for Addleshaw Goddard this week. Its Managing Partner has stepped down a year early, and the firm admitted that its partners had been given incorrect profit projections.

Staff were told last Friday that Paul Devitt was stepping down. He was meant to remain in post until April 2015, so this has triggered an early election. The firm wouldn't comment on his motives for packing in the job, saying only that "we understand and respect Paul’s decision not to stand for re-election and look forward to the continued and valuable contribution he will make to our business as a partner in the corporate division".

Rather unfortunately the news coincides with AG finally* 'fessing up that its partners will get less wedge than they had expected. In a statement the firm said that "an error in our calculations at the start of the financial year" means that partners will receive a "slightly lower than forecast £/point". A spokesman said that there had been a £1m reporting error in Hong Kong and the firm had taken a hit on a conditional fee arrangement (presumably on behalf of the defeated and then deceased Boris Berezovsky).

A double kicking yesterday

The spokesman said that the misreporting was entirely unconnected with Devitt's early departure.

*RollOnFriday contacted the firm in January to say that it understood that an accounting error had left a £multi-million hole in its accounts. At the time the firm's Senior Partner flatly denied it. And this week she repeated that, saying that it was a reporting rather than accounting issue and that these were entirely separate.