Those who champion the view that the articles in Playboy magazine are the most alluring thing about it might be put out to know that the lawyer columnist Corri Fetman, who authored the 'lawyer in love' column, filed a suit this week that an executive of the publishing empire sexually harassed her. The Chicago divorce attorney, who also posed nude for the magazine, alleges Thomas Hagopian, an exec for the digital branch of Playboy Enterprises, bombarded her with sexually explicit email messages and phone calls, groped her and took away her column in July when she rebuffed his advances. Her suit seeks more than US$4.5 ($6.5) million in damages for "gender violence" and emotional distress.

Managing partners' confidence in the financial health of their firms is continuing to fall, a new report by Citi Private Bank has found. Citi Private Bank Law Watch's managing partner confidence index, which compares the expectations of senior figures at top US firms, found that 64 per cent of 120 managing partners surveyed believed business would drop even further in the next six months, LegalWeek.com reports. As well as clients scaling back their use of law firms, managing partners said an upturn in expenses, of up to 10 per cent, would put pressure on firms' profit.

UK magic circle firm Clifford Chance has offered its future trainees £11,000 ($23,000) to defer their training contracts for a year as part of a voluntary programme. The generous offer shows up rivals Lovells, which forced new joiners to defer their contracts for just £13.74 a day.