In the aftermath of recent Legal Week revelations of a one-off instance of cocaine use three years ago at the London arm of US powerhouse Dorsey & Whitney come sinister revelations concerning the existence at the firm of an imaginary lawyer called 'Giovanni'.

The bizarre tale began when one UK partner – who shall remain nameless – recently summoned his entire team into his office to berate them about a drafting error he had noticed in a document.

The assistants, petrified that one of them was to be thrown to the lions, quickly agreed that they should all stick together and that nobody should admit to the mistake. Once the partner realised their ploy he told them a story about his imaginary friend called Giovanni.

It turns out that when the partner in question was at primary school, he and his class mates would always blame any mischief making on Giovanni when the teacher asked the class who was responsible.

The partner went onto tell the assistants that he was quite happy for Giovanni to take the rap on this occasion but that any future mistakes would be severely punished.

Rumours that Giovanni is in fact the cocaine snorting lawyer at the centre of Dorseys' drugs scandal remains unconfirmed, although it would explain his lack of attention to detail while drafting.