He left at 16 to become a tea-buyer for a City firm.

Esterkin has now returned for a final year of legal study, having secured a training contract with a City firm next year.

No less optimistic was Harvard's attitude that employees should maintain the standards of dress appropriate in any "City" firm.

He's a lawyer - one of the big City firms.

He has a job as some kind of clerk working for a City firm.

One suspicious City firm actually changed the date on all its computer systems to 14 October, hoping to side-step any trouble.

Moving to London he spent a year in a City firm before, disenchanted, joining a company of parliamentary draftsmen.

And big City firms should remember that, although they compete, they also have collective interests in improving the City's markets.

If you move outside City firms, it is far more difficult unless there has been a history of share schemes so that employees understand their value.

Most City firms rent their office space from the big institutions that invest in commercial developments.