Following an extensive review of its legal support services in May, Wragge & Co has made 26 full time equivalent (FTE) staff redundant with a further 65 roles transferred across to business process outsourcing (BPO) group Intelligent Office.
The BPO arrangement sees staff from across all four of the 502-lawyer firm’s legal groups – corporate, commercial, finance and projects; real estate; human resources; and dispute resolution – transfer to form a new document production centre, concierge hubs and a ‘docucentre’ for reprographics, post and archiving, all managed on site by Intelligent Office.
Wragge & Co, which launched the restructuring of its legal support services in May 2013, putting 30 FTE secretarial and PA roles across the London and Birmingham offices at risk, said that no compulsory redundancies were made when the consultation ended in August and that the 26 staff all requested voluntary redundancy.
Managing partner Ian Metcalfe said: ‘The new structure has been phased in over the last three months, with the final phase going live on 1 October. The new structure is still bedding in but we are confident we have the right people in the right roles, and that this is the right way forward for the firm, our clients and our people.
‘We wish those who chose not stay with us all the best in the future.’
Wragges is the latest to cut its support staff headcount after Maclay Murray & Spens confirmed in September that it had made 28 legal and support staff redundant soon after Bevan Brittan confirmed the loss of six support staff and a number of fee-earning roles.
Around the same time, Ashurst announced a redundancy consultation in its City base in response to its new low-cost base in Glasgow, confirming in October that 120 jobs are to go.
Meanwhile, Midlands firm Shakespeares, which, following the announcement of its acquisition of Leicester-based property firm Marrons and Coventry-based Newsome Vaughan, also confirmed in September it is restructuring its secretarial function and launched a redundancy round with 19 out of 100 secretarial roles put at risk across its seven offices.
francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk