Dentons will cut around 25 UK roles as part of the launch of a new shared services centre in Warsaw.
The service centre opening this week is a joint initiative between the UK, Middle East and Africa and Europe businesses of the firm.
Dentons Business Services EMEA will be based close to Dentons’ Warsaw office, employing more than 70 people in development, marketing, human resources and IT. The firm plans to grow the office in the next two years.
The firm has seen the transition of a number of roles from the UK to the new centre in Poland. Under the consultation the firm had initially indicated around 50 roles could be affected when the move in May, but the final outcome is set to affect ‘approximately half this number’.
Dentons global chair Joe Andrew (pictured) said the launch was the first step in the firm’s global shared services strategy as ‘a key integration initiative that aims to improve the quality of business services provided to lawyers across the firm’.
According to Dentons, the firm has a presence in 58 countries with more offices planned over the coming months as part of its expansion into Australia and Central America.
Dentons global chief executive Elliot Portnoy said: ‘This represents a major step forward toward achieving our goal of offering clients the highest quality of legal work better, faster and more economically than any of our competitors’.
The firm is to continue its global growth with a merger with Central American law firm Muñoz Global announced last week. The proposed combination will give Dentons a presence in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.
In Europe, the firm’s latest launches have included a new association in Iran as well as a new office launch in Milan in the summer.
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk
Read more in: ‘The Pitch – A new kind of global law firm emerges but can Dentons live up to the hype?’