A wide variety of theories have been offered for the failure of various City standard-bearers to conclusively plant a Union Jack in the gold-paved surroundings of Wall Street.

Lovells has arguably made as good a fist of it as anyone else, opting to concentrate on its contentious practice rather than chasing some unattainable M&A dream.

Even at Lovells, however, there remains a feeling among US partners that they simply 'do things better' on the other side of the pond.

All was going swimmingly at the firm's recent New York-themed press party, until a US-based partner plucked from the tray of a passing waiter what he thought was a Krispy Kreme doughnut – the kind so sweet you can feel a cardiac arrest coming on even as you slurp the last of the confectioner's cream from your fingers.

The doughnut, however, was clearly not to his taste.

"This is supposed to be a Krispy Kreme?" bellowed the bemused partner, obviously finding the claim a little, ahem, hard to swallow. "No way – I mean, have you guys ever had a Krispy Kreme? This is nowhere near as good. The firm could be done for fraud!"