God bless those lawyers who think they’re qualified to do everybody else’s job as well as their own. Sometimes there’s nothing more amusing than talking to pompous partners who think that it’s their place to tell journalists how to do their jobs.
Take Jörg Soehring, the charmless managing partner of Latham & Watkins in Germany. A reporter from The Lawyer took the trouble to explain deadlines to a truculent Mr Soehring, who barked: “I know exactly how you journalists work, I work with the media all the time.” Having mastered deadlines so thoroughly, Soehring might now do well to invest in a course on manners.
And perhaps McGrigor Donald partner David Bankier should join him. According to Bankier, reporters publish rumours which they’ve heard third-hand, without ever calling the party in question. (The fact that this would leave the publications open to a host of lawsuits seemed to have passed him by.)
Mind you, the pomposity of Bankier and Soehring together still does not compare to that of Ashurst Morris Crisp’s Ian Nisse, who refused to listen to any of The Lawyer’s questions or any subject whatsoever. At which point Tulkinghorn’s mole, by now rather frustrated, said to the jolly old fellow: “But it’s my obligation to give you an opportunity to respond to this information.”
To which Nisse responded: “My brother’s a journalist, I know how journalists operate.” Really, Mr Nisse? Some of Tulkinghorn’s best friends are lawyers, you know.