What's the point of being a mogul if one of your businesses can't help out another?

Duncan Gibbins Solicitors (recently in the news for its redundancy consultation) is full of praise for Zoodle, the company which does its online marketing. The Merseyside law firm provided a glowing testimonial which is plastered across Zoodle's website, and goes on about Zoodle providing "stellar support" to help it "keep standards high". Zoodle also takes credit for Duncan Gibbins Solicitors' tweeting success, though its boast of 4,500 followers is a little toppy (by about 3,800).

Some...Zoodles, I guess?

Duncan Gibbins Solicitors isn't the only satisfied customer. Liverpool Personal Injury Solicitors is also impressed:



Liverpool Personal Injury Solicitors appears to be the same firm as Duncan Gibbins Solicitors. Entirely coincidentally, Duncan Gibbins, as well as being the principal of his eponymously named firm, is also...a director of Zoodle. Neat!
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Osborne Clarke is making up to 13 senior lawyers redundant.

RollOnFriday has learnt that the jobs will be lost primarily from the firm's corporate and projects department and across all three of its London, Bristol and Thames Valley offices.

Managing partner Simon Beswick said "We have had a structural overcapacity in the business at Associate and Senior Solicitor levels for a while now. We had hoped that this issue would naturally unwind but over the past few months it became clear that this would not be the case. Looking forward, we can't see that position changing, so we have had to address this issue to maintain the strength of our business."

Beswick also confirmed that partners are in the firing line, noting that "We have also been looking at tackling small pockets of overcapacity at Partner level and have taken steps to address that situation."

It follows BLP's announcement of mass redundancies yesterday.

Read more tomorrow.
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RollOnFriday has learnt that Herbert Smith Freehills has frozen pay in Australia.

A spokesman for the firm confirmed that pay reviews at its Australian offices have been cancelled and will be deferred indefinitely.



Aussie managing partner Jason Ricketts told staff that it was in response to "challenging market conditons in our region and is unrelated to the merger". All is clearly not great down under.

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There are loads of great films set in the world of lawyers. In the latest in a series spotlighting the ones you should see immediately, here are three reasons to watch meaty courtroom thriller The Verdict.

1. It'll reignite your passion for bundling

As you hunker down in another data room collecting paper cuts, missed calls and frustration, it's easy to forget why you ever chose law. A bit like Frank Galvin. He's a has-been lawyer who gave up trying a thousand bars ago. Reduced to drinking, ambulance chasing and drinking, his career is in the toilet and he doesn't care.

Galvin never has a double before midday, except during the week and weekends

When he gets handed a medical malpractice case on a plate, he does what he always does - arranges a quick settlement so he can get back on a bender. Only this time, something makes him take a closer look. Through the whisky mist, he spots the possibility of courtroom victory - and redemption. Oooh. Trust me, after watching this, you'll be filling out those pro formas like a maniac, your passion for the law fully restored for maybe as long as a day.

2. Paul Newman

Decades after legendary cinematographer Conrad L Hall filmed Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, he shot him again in Road to Perdition. Looking at the 77 year old through the viewfinder, Hall burst into tears. Asked why, he said "He was so beautiful. He was so beautiful". I'm not sure what Newman made of that. But getting distracted by his looks, while easy to do, is reductive.

But so easy

Newman was far more than his baby blues. In The Verdict - where he is far from pretty (unless slovenly drunks are your thing) - he turns in a magnificent performance. The part was originally offered to Robert Redford (like every other part until 1985), who ordered multiple rewrites of David Mamet's script before deciding Galvin's alcoholism was too problematic for his matinee idol image. Newman had no such qualms. His climb from the gutter is a joy to behold, although it will make you thirsty.

3. Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis fans (so, everyone) will be delighted to learn that he made one of his first appearances on celluloid as an uncredited extra in the courtroom scenes. Here:

"I'm getting too old for this sh- wait, I'm 27? Ok, scratch that."

And, like that Sex Pistols gig where everyone watching formed a band, next to him is sat Tobin Bell, the baddy from the Saw films. You really shouldn't need another reason to watch it immediately.
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RollOnFriday understands that students arriving at the Holborn branch of BPP law school this week have been greeted with piles of free copies of FHM and Loaded.

Normally it's a Time Out and that's yer lot. But apparently students can now help themselves to the 1990s' periodicals of choice for thirteen year old boys and, in this month's editions, appraise themselves of:

- the cheerleaders of the Ultimate Fighting Championship
- why you shouldn't eat food after dropping it on the floor
- the art of illegal street racing in Baltimore
- "how to date three girls at the same time (without cheating)"

BPP this morning

A delighted, presumably male, student wondered whether BPP was making lads mags available because of overwhelming demand or "pastoral concern for the often lonely and frustrated lives of lawyers," adding that it was the "best day evurrr". His three girlfriends were unavailable for comment.
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