The more sniping and sneering there is, the less worried a firm should be. It's when everyone - rivals and ex-partners alike - starts to stand foursquare behind a firm in trouble that you should start to smell several rats.

With this in mind, it is interesting to note the reactions around the City to Allen & Overy's client conflict predicaments that drag on.

Firstly, the good news. There's no outpourings of pity for poor A&O, surprised as it was by an investigation from a Law Society. However, Clifford Chance is full of sympathy.

The firm is being increasingly vocal in its support for Allen & Overy, with head of conflicts Chris Perrin standing up nobly and vociferously for his arch rivals. Should this be a cause for concern for A&O?

Worry not. Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance are like peas in a pod, in that their pods are filled by an unusually high proportion of instructions from far too few clients, normally an all-too finite number of investment banks.

CC aside, the sniping is carrying on full steam. Several senior figures in the City - from the Magic Circle to US firms - are privately expressing displeasure, suggesting A&O may well have gone too far and been too greedy. Read the first in-depth defence of the allegations from A&O, exclusively in Legal Business, on page 28.
Tom Freeman