A rather unusual memo has been leaked to US blog Above the Law from the Californian office of international firm Jones Day . As JD associates the world over survey the wreckage of other firms that lie around them, they can be thankful that their own firm’s culture has kept them safe – by not "protecting partners’ incomes on the corpses of associates and staff." Here are some illuminating extracts of partner Joe Sims’ memo from ATL:

First, who we are, what we do, and how we do it has served Jones Day (and JD California) well during these hard times. Our geographic and practice balance; our one-Firm attitude; our belief that our real focus has to be on the long run, while managing the short-term problems that we face; and the fact that we understand that, in addition to our clients and our partners, the Firm has a responsibility to deal with our staff and associates in a way that recognizes that they and their families depend on this institution–all of these mean that we will come out of this crisis stronger than we went in.

So far not so unusual but the memo goes into much greater depth than that and it doesn’t limit itself to just internal praise either:

Second, many of our peer competitors will come out weaker, not stronger. They may well protect their short-term financial metrics (although it will be interesting to see how we fare vs. the firms that slashed and burned), but they will pay a long-term price….

And the dissing of other firms goes on and on too. The memo doesn’t mention any firms by name but the targets of the criticism are deemed likely to know who they are. And yes the responses have already started.

Click here for ATL’s full take.