A furious employee trashed Davenport Lyons' office after being told it had gone into administration.

The ragebeast's identity is unknown and likely to stay that way, since plenty of staff had motive. In contrast to partners who were aware for weeks they were going to close the firm and flog its carcass to rival Gordon Dadds, staff were kept in the dark until the day administrators were appointed. Worse, they discovered that partners had arranged new jobs for themselves at Gordon Dadds, while around 50 associates and support staff were to be made redundant. It didn't help that their Managing Partner had recently assured them, "I want my staff to know what’s going on - they are my biggest asset”.

A Davenport Lyons ex-employee yesterday

The bad news affected staff in different ways. For one, it meant returning to the office after hours, putting their jacket over their chair, and then hurling that chair across the room and going apeshit. Details of the extent of the damage are sketchy, but presumably the person responsible left the building feeling much better, wearing the guts of their computer like a hat.

Gordon Dadds Managing Partner Adrian Biles told The Lawyer one "disgruntled ex-employee" was responsible and said a "trivial amount of damage was done to furniture".