The downturn is causing headaches for senior partners across the country as firms are forced to take drastic action to deal with the nosediving economy. Most firms have limited their ’safety’ measures to the usual weapons in their armoury such as laying off employees, closing offices and freezing salaries. However, after being singled out for some critical attention in Legal Business Halliwells are understood to have gone a step further and done a bit of ritual magazine burning…

So a bit of Voodoo then? Well not literally but the magazine is understood to have caused quite a stir at Hallwiells’ management level (and apparently had its circlation there a’hem ‘reduced’) for its pointed editorial and its suggestively titled leading article "The Flight of Icarus", "Sun Burnt " – to get a flavour:

"This month’s cover story reveals in lurid detail the extent to which strategic decisions that looked too good to be true in the boom times, probably were. If ever there was a cautionary tale ready-made to temper the excesses of even the most cavalier of partnerships, this is it."

"With record turnover growth and rising profits, Halliwells should be a remarkable success story. But, faced with mounting debts and a London office near breaking point, the firm appears to have bitten off more than it can chew."

The comparisons with Icarus were clearly not welcomed and it seems there is more heat inside the firm’s Manchester headquarters these days than there is penetrating the thick cloud cover now overhead…