On 26 February 2026, Horsfield Menzies published “Managing Relationships at Work”. Four days later, it announced that Laura McLellan had joined the firm as a Partner and Head of its Leeds office. Sometimes TCAP has to work for the joke. Sometimes Horsfield Menzies publishes it in two instalments.
Lucy Croft’s “Managing Relationships at Work” is a perfectly sensible employment-law article. Workplace relationships happen. Employers need policies. Professional behaviour matters. Conflicts of interest need managing. Disclosure may sometimes be appropriate.
All good stuff, if not exactly subtle SEO filler. Horsfield Menzies have been publishing these employment-law explainers at industrial fucking volume.
Then 2 March arrived.
Simon Horsfield published “WELCOME TO LAURA MCLELLAN”, announcing that Laura McLellan had joined Horsfield Menzies as a Partner and Head of the Leeds office.
So, to recap:
Horsfield Menzies published “Managing Relationships at Work”. A few days later they had a new partner at work.
That is basically the fucking article.
Sometimes The Website Does The Work
Usually Horsfield Menzies : Blog vs Behaviour involves unpleasant amounts of reading. Tribunal bundles. Emails. Policies. Medical records. Sam Butler apparently attempting to establish whether my doctor can squeeze me in before lunch.
Not this afternoon. Well, it is Friday.
Now we have nouns.
Relationships. Work. Partner. Work.
Nobody has done anything wrong. Well, on this narrow issue and to our knowledge.
The English language, however, has.
Better still, Horsfield Menzies’ own website places the two articles directly beside one another in its navigation. Open “Managing Relationships at Work” and there sits “WELCOME TO LAURA MCLELLAN” as the neighbouring article. Open Laura’s welcome piece and “MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK” points straight back.
Even the fucking pagination is doing TCAP now.
Managing Partners At Work
Croft’s article advises employers to set expectations around professional behaviour and to think carefully about relationships in the workplace.
Horsfield Menzies then introduced Laura McLellan as its newest Partner.
I have nothing to add to that sequence.
No disclosure application is required. No DSAR. Nobody needs to ring a GP practice. There will be no 1,600-page bundle and Sam Butler can leave the Dropbox alone.
For once, the source material arrived completely assembled.
Managing Relationships at Work.
New Partner at work.
Four days apart.
Sometimes investigative publishing is forensic work.
Sometimes it is simply having the emotional maturity of a twelve-year-old and refusing to let an absolutely pristine bit of wordplay pass without comment.
TCAP accepts the charge.
Horsfield Menzies : Blog vs English Language
There are deeper lessons in Lucy Croft’s article about disclosure, fairness, conflicts and appropriate workplace conduct.
We will leave those alone.
This one belongs to the magnificent ambiguity of the word partner: simultaneously capable of describing somebody you have a relationship with and somebody whose hourly rate suggests they have long since stopped worrying about the price of Freddos.
Horsfield Menzies published advice about managing relationships at work.
Four days later, Horsfield Menzies had a new Partner at work.
We cannot confirm whether this was simply a legal professional joining a firm, or whether an enraged Lucy Croft caught wind of the news and pre-empted the announcement with a passive-aggressive blog post.
However, congratulations to Laura McLellan.
And congratulations to whoever arranged the publication calendar.
Sometimes the jokes really do write themselves.
Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project