Parabis Law’s claimant arm Cogent Law is making 24 redundancies in its Croydon base affecting Cogent Law office’s entire headcount, with redundancy reviews set to take place over the next five months.
The cuts comes as over three-quarters of Cogent’s claimant work is being transferred out to two of Parabis Law’s alternative business structure (ABS) partners Direct Line Group and insurer Saga, which obtained authorisation from the Solicitors Regulation Authority to become ABS’ at the beginning of the year.
The move means that Cogent will no longer offer pre-litigation work from its Croydon base.
The cuts follow Parabis’ partnership with Direct Line Group which obtained authorisation from the Solicitors Regulation Authority to become an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) at the beginning of the year.
The announcement also follows the closure of two of Parabis Law’s regional offices – Bristol and Colchester – which shut down at the beginning of October, following two months of consultation, affecting 41 employees in the legal and administrative support staff department. However, a spokesperson at Parabis said the two redundancy announcements are unrelated.
‘Over the last year, the claimants work coming into Cogent’s Croyden office has come to a natural end, and this would have happened irrespective of Parabis Law’s office closures,’ added the spokesperson. ‘The Colchester and Bristol office closures were part of a wider strategy to do with rationalising offices.’
Parabis Law is set to consolidate offices in various locations, including London, in a bid to use fewer sites as part of the firm’s long-term strategy for facilities, resources and cross-team working. This comes as a result of the series of Parabis mergers in recent years. Eventually, the firm aims to have its London, Croydon and Leeds offices as its core offices.
jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk
