Slaughters buys a year: Who's next?

City firms Berwin Leighton Paisner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May have come up with a novel way of using up their extra cash: buying up a year of London's history (see story).

Now, buying an entire year may seem like the zenith of corporate excess, but actually this is all in the name of our capital's culture: the Museum of London is selling off years of London's history to raise money for its £18m redevelopment. There are still lots more years up for grabs for law firms that have a spare £5,000 to splash out.

For SJ Berwin perhaps 2000 would be a good year, as it was then that the firm sparked the first major associate salary war during the dotcom era.

A memorable year indeed, though many firms probably have years they would rather forget. Perhaps they could buy up that year and rewrite its history?

Wilmer Hale should probably buy up 2003 for its embarrassing attempt to sue its secretary over £750.

For Hammonds, 2005 was not its best moment as its partners had to repay £3m after an audit screw up. Possibly a good one to scrub from the past?

Dewey Ballantine, currently full of glee over its merger with LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae, may wish to change 2006, when its merger with Orrick came a cropper.

Perhaps Freshfields would like to buy up another year to change history? How about 2007?