Having had a glimpse at the challenges facing lawyers going forward yesterday , here’s our take on the week past. Solicitr’s final law fair of the season in Sheffield left the team with a few crumbs of thought on the whole recruitment process. The glossy picture firms give at law fairs sits a little at odds with the stark reality at the coal face but does it all come down to boardroom biscuits?

We’ll see, but first a morsel of Magic cheer glimmered this week as Linklaters posted a £20m increase in revenues at the half-year stage compared to the same period last year, with fee income increasing to £653m. A 3 per cent rise doesn’t compare to last year’s 18 per cent but these days they may be glad at least that it’s still rising!

On the downside, US firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett announced this week that it is to halve its year-end associate bonuses causing much consternation amongst the affected associates. Much complaint centred on the possibility that partners themselves would not be considering the same diet. Right on cue, Magic circle firms A&O, Freshfields and Clifford Chance also indicated their intentions to take a conservative approach to this year’s round of US associate bonuses.

Life just isn’t fair.

With a more national flavour…

Hammond ’s high-profile dispute with a group of the firm’s former partners took to the courts on Tuesday. Hammonds has challenged a group of ex-partners over an alleged breach of the firm’s partnership agreement, with the ex-partners refusing to pay back anticipated profits over a two-year period to 2005. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s not an ideal time to be attracting rather embarrassing and negative attention to one’s firm as the chilly ice of recession approaches but is all publicity good publicity??

For lovers of the modern day curiosity shop, there will be sadness as Woolies goes under. The administrators of Woolworths have called on Freshfields and Linklaters to help wind up the floundering retail monster. The Solicitr team could never really understand the attraction of the Pick-n-Mix paradise but a quick and rather unscientific poll revealed the somewhat Marmite nature of its charms.

Meanwhile, Bevan Brittan has been drafted in to help local councils reclaim millions of pounds from Iceland ’s crippled banks. Kent County Council and the London Borough of Barnet were the authorities with the most money deposited in Icelandic banks with the garden of England having deposited around £50m in Landsbanki.

And on the trainee front:

US firm Cadwalader Wikersham & Taft will not offer jobs to any of the trainee solicitors who are due to qualify into its London office next spring. Three unlucky trainees have been affected.

But on a brighter note:

BT has revamped its trainee lawyer recruitment programme, opening it up to external candidates with places for 5 trainees.

And even brighter… The British Legal Awards 2008 were held on Wednesday with Pannone voted Regional Law Firm of the Year and Eversheds voted Law Firm of the Year. If you want to see the full details including award for the best pumpkin growing firm of the year visit Legal Week .

And finally, back to those biscuits. One magic circle trainee we met on our law fair tour insisted that the firms’ cultures could be picked up through their choice of biscuits. Now there is a serious point here for those on the outside (students etc) which those on the inside will be able to elaborate on (trainees etc feel free to comment here). The culture is in the details that one takes for granted in daily working life, as with life in general. One individual may not fairly represent that culture but there will be bits that have rubbed off on them such as those biscuit crumbs.

So there you have it, if you see evidence of granola bars on ties and organic fruit on the table, the managing board may have some heavy hitting hippies in its midst…

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