Dechert partner wages Instagram war on mainstream media over ‘Mrs Clegg’ slur

Top City lawyer accuses the Daily Mail of ‘abuse’ and posting ‘fake news’

Dechert partner Miriam González expressed her dismay on Instagram at being referred to by her husband Nick Clegg’s surname. Now, she has used the social platform to wage war on the Daily Mail for questioning her decision to do so.

The 48-year-old Oxford graduate is a partner at Dechert’s London office, where she is co-chair of the outfit’s International Trade and Government Regulation practice. Unusually for a City lawyer, González has a personal Instagram account, and this week she used it to slam a letter she received addressed to “Mrs Clegg”.

The irony of being invited to speak at an International Women's Day event to celebrate women's success addressed to me as 'Mrs Clegg' …?

A photo posted by Miriam Gonzalez Durantez (@miriamgonzalezdurantez) on Feb 6, 2017 at 1:23pm PST

Moments after this post was made, national news outlets latched onto it and reported it in various forms. One such outlet was our good friend the Daily Mail, which ran a story featuring these lines:

Perhaps Miriam should take the matter up with International Women Day’s commercial partner, U.S. soft drinks giant Pepsico. Pepsico paid her husband £44,500 to make two speeches shortly after he resigned as Deputy Prime Minister, even though he had previously campaigned against junk food.

Unhappy, the corporate lawyer hit back at the newspaper, implying the story was “fake news”.

According to the Daily Mail in my previous post I have shamed the overall organisers of International Women day – and PepsiCo. HIlarious!! And then they say that 'fake news' is just a social media problem…?

A photo posted by Miriam Gonzalez Durantez (@miriamgonzalezdurantez) on Feb 8, 2017 at 12:47am PST

Later, González publicly thanked the BBC for “reporting [the story] more accurately than the Daily Mail”.

Overnight, all fell silent on the anti-Daily Mail Instagram tirade front. But, just when we thought it was over, this morning she hit us with this:

Darth Dacre strikes again with the perceptive piece of abuse! Darling Paul, I do not know what women have done to you in the past to make you treat us like this…but surely at 68 it is time for you to get over it!! …and perhaps also time for you to develop a tiny hint of a sense of humour too??…never too late! ??

A photo posted by Miriam Gonzalez Durantez (@miriamgonzalezdurantez) on Feb 8, 2017 at 11:12pm PST

Yes, that is an image of the newspaper’s editor, Paul Dacre, copied and pasted onto Darth Vader.

This latest post was in response to a Daily Mail article which stated European law specialist González’s “aggressive feminism does her no favours”.

Keep your eyes peeled for more González vs the national media shenanigans.

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