Legal Week Awards 2006: The morning after the night before

There were plenty of sore heads at Legal Week this morning following last night’s Legal Week Awards 2006 at Old Billingsgate Market.

If the number of people on the dance floor at the end of the night is anything to go by, there were probably quite a few sore heads across the City of London as well. Among those dancing the night away was Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer senior partner Konstantin Mettenheimer, who cut quite a dash. He seemed none the worse for having lost out to Linklaters’ Tony Angel in the Managing/Senior Partner of the Year category. Still, Freshfields did win M&A Team of the Year.

Another highlight of the evening was The City of London Law Society Lifetime Achievement Award, which went to former Simmons & Simmons senior partner Janet Gaymer in recognition of her achievements as an employment lawyer, senior partner and public servant.

Before she picked up the award a short film was shown containing tributes from people who had worked with her closely during her long career. Among the contributors was Bill Knight, who preceded her as Simmons senior partner (see Monday’s blog). He revealed how he had to take firm action in order to persuade her to stand for senior partner.

“I can now confess that I went into her office, pushed her aside from her computer and typed an email to myself saying ‘I wish to be a candidate to be senior partner of Simmons & Simmons’," he recalls.

In her acceptance speech last night Gaymer joked that the award probably breached the age discrimination rules. But she didn’t seem remotely fussed. Indeed, afterwards she described the award as “a wonderful milestone of 35 years in the law”.

You can read a full round-up of the awards here . The Gaymer tribute video will be available on this blog shortly.