As the firms prepare for their three way merger, 300 support staff roles at CMS Cameron McKenna, Olswang and Nabarro are set to be cut following a redundancy consultation.
The consultation, which ran from 16 January to 3 March, only concerned UK roles. Of the 950 support staff across the three firms 650 staff were offered roles in the combined firm.
The three firms confirmed a merger in October last year, raising the prospect of a number of back office rationalisations with the three partnerships set to take up residency in Camerons’ Cannon Place office when the merger goes live in May.
A statement from Camerons said: ‘We can confirm that the consultation process for our business services and secretarial teams has now concluded. Of the 950 support staff across our three firms including outsourced service providers, 650 staff have been offered roles in the new firm. Of those leaving the majority have chosen to take voluntary redundancy and we have honoured all requests regardless of whether there was a role or not.’
Camerons’ UK business had previously signed a deal to outsource a large proportion of UK support staff functions to Integreon in 2010, scaling back the deal in 2013.
While business service and secretarial roles have been cut, the firm’s previously said no fee earner redundancies were expected.
However, there have been several Olswang exits in recent days, including the departure of five patent lawyers for Dentons and the exit of former interim chief executive Michael Burdon to Simmons & Simmons.
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk
Read more: ‘Comment: There’s value in CMS’ purchase and one big hurdle ahead’ and ‘Sale of the Century – Has Camerons picked up a bargain with Olswang and Nabarro?’