Friendly Fire! Mishcon partner tells overworked associate he's got it easy compared to Ukrainians

tobias crying

^{"My problems mean nothing."}

Lawyers at Mishcon de Reya are in trouble if its Head of Arbitration, Louis Flannery QC, gets a foothold in HR.

On Wednesday morning the Mishcon partner told an associate his work problems were trivial compared to the suffering being experienced by Ukrainians under attack from Russian military forces.

The rebuttal came after the Managing Associate, whom RollOnFriday agreed not to name because he's stressed out enough already, tweeted about pressured working conditions. The associate posted a gif showing Arrested Development's Tobias crying in the shower, captioned: "When you wake up at 4am because you're worried about how much work you've got on and then spend two hours battling with your internet not working".

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Lawyers will be familiar with the gut-twisting panic of a rammed schedule and a cruddy connection, and several legal professionals dropped by the associate's timeline to commiserate. "I'm not liking liking this tweet I am empathising with the pain", said Jim Robottom, a barrister at Matrix Chambers. "My sympathies", posted another Matrix barrister.

The responses from the associate's Mishcon colleagues were somewhat harsher, as you'd expect from friends. "Just a thought", replied Mishcon tech lawyer Adam Rose, "maybe try dealing with the internet issue when you’re out of the shower? I’m not an expert, but I’m never convinced that lots of running water helps electrical stuff".

That was good, but better was the complaint-terminating line from Flannery: "Count yourself lucky", wrote the solicitor advocate. "You're not waking up at 4am to the sound of air raid sirens or bombs!"

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Flannery's Twitter page is very focused on Ukraine at the moment, indicating that Putin's invasion has replaced Tory "turds" as the object of his ire. Many will support his sentiments, but there was criticism of the partner's suggestion that the crisis obviates the right to complain about anything else. "Wonderfully supportive comment from an @Mishcon_de_Reya partner", an observer replied sarcastically. "Waking up at 4AM due to the pressures of work isn’t trivial moaning. I hope your colleagues are supportive and that your day improves", they told the associate.

The exchange appears to have have set alarm bells ringing at Mishcon HQ, as the lawyers all swiftly deleted their tweets. Unfortunately it's too late for Flannery - the outspoken QC has made a superb rod for his own back.

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Comments

Good to see someone senior at MdR finally taking a stand on this given the firm's well-known fondness for Russian engagements

Why the over reaction of deleting Twitter accounts?

The core issue is that he said the wrong thing, not that it was on Twitter.

Erm ROF think you have in fact named the guy in the later captions?

Has Flannery self-reported yet to the BSB?

The whole exchange is unprofessional. If your account identifies you, and you have an individual professional profile that clearly links you to your job, then you shouldn't be announcing to the world at large that your workload is causing you stress and your working environment is inadequate. There are appropriate channels for that.

Sounds like Mischon needs to remind its staff that social media is public.

Is anyone going to explain the joke to Fosco?

Adam Rose is one of the nicest partners at the firm. His comment was clearly lighthearted and there is every possibility that, during the course of the day, he would have phoned the Associate in question to see how they were doing and to see if he could help. That is 100% his character.

I don’t think there’s any suggestion that Rose is anything but a good bloke, Bob. His comment is clearly a bit of (non-toxic) banter.

That could be turned on the partner - if a piece of work is late or a client is upset, just tell the partner it’s not as bad as being shelled in Ukraine. I’m sure the partner would completely accept that.