On Thursday, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer made the most vehement possible statement of intent to remodel a firm that has been the subject of a string of unwholesome headlines over the past 18 months. It elected Georgia Dawson as senior partner, the first ever woman to lead a so-called ‘magic circle’ firm.
It is the first step, leap, into a cultural revolution that will, one would hope, transport the firm out the murk of the sexual harassment scandals, the tax-scandal sagas, the drinking culture, the alleged mismanaged rape claims that have dogged it to the point it has become almost synonymous with faux-macho 1980s City culture.
