Business Diary: Are these legal eagles embarrassed?

Now it has been revealed that Linklaters provided the advice that allowed Lehman Brothers to use a highly controversial accounting technique to conceal as much as $50bn (£33bn) in debt – all perfectly legal, to be fair – perhaps it might want to remove the page of associate Matthew Honeyben from the recruitment section of its website. In it he waxes lyrical about his work on the administration of, erm, Lehman Brothers.

The pot calling the kettle black

"Women don't need to act like men to succeed in the boardroom," according to a release that reaches us from self-styled "career accelerator" Judith Germain, who adds "as we move to a more collaborative society, these traditional leaders will rapidly become dinosaurs". Germain sounds a little unreconstructed herself to us.

How long will it take Ryanair?

Howard Wheedon, a transport expert at BGC Partners, has this to say about the forthcoming industrial action at British Airways: "No doubt some busybody airline that happens to have its base in neighbouring country to the UK will soon be making ridiculous statements insulting BA management and supporting the striking BA workforce for its own ends and potential gain." So cynical about our Irish friends.

Bosses fall foul of council workers

Who says the public sector is the place to work for job satisfaction and harmonious relations with your employer? The law firm EMW Picton Howell says that last year, some 37 per cent of cases at the Employment Appeals Tribunal involved staff employed in the public sector, despite only 22 per cent of the UK workforce having the State as their boss.

Mean and childish, but still funny

Diary was rather tickled by this joke, which one of its trader contacts said has been doing the rounds of trading floors in the past week:

"What's the difference between a bond and a bond trader? A bond matures."

Number of the day: £650m

The cost so far to insurers of this winter's unusually snowy conditions across the UK