Like a starlet hitting the first signs of ageing, she’s still attractive in many ways but the guys are starting to notice the crows feet, the saggy bits and the fresher faced beauties angling for her place.

The threat of supertaxes combined with political uncertainty and a tanking pound is not working in the City’s favour. The supertax horrifies hedge funds, brokers and bankers. The deficit makes the bond markets feel like gagging. And countries like Switzerland offer skiing and decent trains as on top of their nice tax regimes. All of which conspire to make the City less of a draw.

No surprise then that foreign law firms are also backing off. The City has been a favorite hunting ground for overseas firms trying to muscle in on some of the high value transactions that go hand in hand with its ‘financial capital’ status. In particular, US firms were aggressively expanding there. Not any more.

Legal Week: Lateral partner hiring by US firms in London fell to its lowest level since 2004 last year, according to new research from Legal Week.

…

The drop is even more marked if Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM) is removed from the equation, since the new London entrant – which launched in the City in June 2009 – was responsible for a quarter of all of the partner hires by US firms in the City.

And the stats are particularly unfavourable for associates. Whilst partner levels have remained fairly static, associate numbers have been falling:

…associate headcount took a dive across the board during 2009, with overall numbers dipping from 2,536 to 2,214 by January 2010.

More>

Unfortunately the UK is going to need more than cosmetic surgery to  make it’s star look pretty again. At the moment though, it doesn’t look like anyone is even brave enough to wield a scalpel.