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My firm has a taxi policy which states that you may take a taxi home if you leave the office after 9pm. On a reasonably busy day, I would sometime work until 7-8pm, go to the gym near the office, go back to the office (which will be after 9pm) and take a taxi home. An argument could be made that I would not be in the office after 9pm if not because of the gym, but then I am working quite word throughout the day otherwise.

Am I taking the piss a bit, or is this quite normal practice among big law?

Seems a little off to me (with my limited knowledge/experience). I think if you had additional work to do at 9, even if only for half an hour or so, then it would be more reasonable.

Don’t know if others do similar stuff, but I would be fairly embarrassed to try and justify that to a partner or client.

There are some things you do without explaining in detail. 9pm is also insanely late for the cutoff

I’m not sure it should count if you only leave the office after 9 because you stick around later than you have to, but I also think this is likely an office culture thing. If people in your office do this and your firm is fine with it, no problem. And if no one’s said anything to you, then keep going. But I could see it varying by firm.

No one will care about that or ever ask. I think if you're in the office after 9, for whatever reason, you should expense a car.

This definitely goes against the spirit of the rule, but I agree you're unlikely to catch heat for doing this on occasion. Part of the purpose of the car home is safety, dating back to a time in New York where walking around in a suit after dark was a great way to get mugged.

I would not do this if your firm assigns cab charges to specific client codes (i.e., a client is paying for, essentially, your ride home from the gym).

if the firm is paying, w/e, it's almost certainly against policy but stakes are way lower. if a partner or whoever finds out and doesn't like it, they'll just tell you to knock it off