A Clifford Chance trainee is in serious trouble after he was filmed boasting about his job in a series of short interviews with drunk revellers by Oxford University student newspaper Cherwell. The video sees the trainee profess his love of being a “City lad” before defining “ladness” as “just basically fucking people over for money”. The relevant section is at 4:14 in the clip above, with a transcription of the exchange below…
Trainee: “I’m a City lad and I fucking love the ladness. I love the City.”
Interviewer: “The ladness?”
Trainee: “I love the ladness and I love the City, so I’m basically a perfect City lad.”
Interviewer: “What is the ladness?”
Trainee: “The ladness is just basically fucking people over for money.”
Interviewer: “Fucking people over for money?
Trainee: “Yeah.”
Having realised his mistake, at 6:41 in the video the trainee grabs the microphone and says: “I refuse my consent for this to go on the internet, and I will sue you if it goes on”.
Clifford Chance has issued this statement: “The comments made are inappropriate and they are at odds with our principles and the professional standards we espouse as a firm. One of our trainee lawyers is the subject of our formal disciplinary procedures which may result in termination of the training contract with the firm”.