In a year in which law firms were hit by everything from geopolitics to Google's algorithms, it's time to take a look back (and maybe win a stupendously valuable prize in the Christmas Quiz). Plus we've put together a bumper selection of the best stories of the year.

January saw Trowers & Hamlins beating a hasty retreat from Egypt, then risking another revolution by making secretaries redundant (despite its managing partner needing five a year). One of the more dismal trends of 2014 was the industry-wide culls of support staff, though firms pushed ahead on all fronts in their drive for greater efficiency. Hogan Lovells became the latest to unveil a low cost work centre via some Brum-shoring.

Clifford Chance got a spanking in the Court of Appeal. Although, as the judge pointed out, its clients "were perfectly content with the belligerent tone, volume, content and repetition" of its work. In other Magic Circle news, a Linklaters trainee sparked an airport bomb scare after his teddy was mistaken for a furry WMD, and there was a seismic shift at Slaughter and May when it made its first ever lateral hire. But never mind yesterday's elite: Bond Dickinson was named "most admired" in a survey.

Irwin Mitchell was not named most admired in a survey, but it did manage to get itself banned from Google, apparently by spamming blogs with links to itself. Mayer Brown also got its wings burnt exploring some dubious marketing tactics. It was accused of dressing up its French associates as partners to pump up its credentials on the continent.

    A fake Frenchman in 2014

2014 witnessed the death of several firms, though some managed more bungling on the way to the grave than others. A Davenport Lyons partner failed to stave off his firm's collapse when he accidentally gave away the firm's bank security credentials to a con artist, who promptly siphoned off hundreds of thousands of pounds from the client account. Then someone smashed up the office.

Some names died, too: SJ Berwin disappeared, Squire Sanders met its Waterloo when it merged with Patton Boggs and Field Fisher Waterhouse became sexy, lower case 'fieldfisher'. No thanks to Charles Saatchi.

     Some patterned bogs yesterday

There was controversy. A story on the DAC Beachcroft associate who was struck off for stealing sunglasses provoked fierce debate in the comments section. And many readers sympathised with the top partner at a major firm who pinged off a gin-soaked tirade to his board from a London bar. Meanwhile, back at DAC, two other lawyers were caught drinking together in the loos (in other bathroom news, a Jersey firm banned air fresheners after staff kept triggering the fire alarm trying to mask toilet odours).

Attention to detail was in the spotlight this year. An in-house team drafting a multimillion pound contract took future-proofing to the next level when they smuggled in a clause covering off the possibility of a gay zombie invasion. No-one reads the boilerplate anyway, but maybe someone should have checked the Allen & Overy job ad asking for a "young" person. And Bond Dickinson took a novel approach to rejecting a candidate, when it sent him the internal emails discussing when and how to reject him.

At least such cock-ups weren't client-facing. Unlike the firm which was fired for calling its clients "stupid" (rookie mistake) and the secretary at Maclay Murray & Spens, who had perhaps had a few too many by the time she wrote to a client that MMS hoped they were ok, but the firm really "didn't give a fuck".

    Some MMS secretaries

There was plenty of good news too. By August the current state of trainee retention had come into focus, with 100% scores for four firms: White & Case, Weil, fieldfisher and TLT. Meanwhile Slaughters, RPC and Travers also impressed, though firms continued to nip at the size of their trainee intakes. Or slash them. Mayer Brown's trainee retention was abysmal, though it wasn't a surprise since RollOnFriday had already revealed that it was halving its trainee intake.

Elsewhere there were encouraging signs of diversity, flexibility and humanity. Clifford Chance launched an anti-stress programme, Bond Dickinson promoted an all-female round of partners and DWF promoted a workshed. There was some glamour, too. Ex-Slaughters, ex-Lathams lawyer Felipe appeared on The Apprentice (and gave RollOnFriday an illuminating exit interview), while a Burges Salmon partner had that Brad Pitt in the back of his tank. And the world breathed a sigh of relief when Reed Smith announced it had put together a Global Ebola Task Force.

    Reed Smith: the sixth emergency service

As the year wound down, the news only got bigger. Skadden's UK lawyers discovered they were in line for phenomenal US-sized bonuses (much to the chagrin of their peers), while Olswang's CEO was revealed to have been 'taken out for dinner', mafia-style. Last but not least, two Linklaters partners resigned after one punched the other in the face. Roll on 2015.


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