Ashurst has culled more than half of its secretarial staff in London as its redundancy review draws to a ‘difficult’ conclusion.
The firm confirmed on Wednesday (19 July) that 54 of its 100-strong secretarial team had been made redundant following a consultation which put 80 jobs at risk. Two secretarial roles in the Middle East have also been axed. Continue reading “‘A difficult time’: Ashurst axes 54 City secretaries following redundancy review”
Taylor Wessing is joining the growing list of City firms expanding into low cost centres in the UK by launching an office in Liverpool.
The UK top 20 firm’s new base will open in September with an initial team of 11 lawyers and business support staff. Taylor Wessing will appoint a partner to lead the new office and aims to grow the team to 25 by the end of the year – consisting of 10 legal and 15 non-legal roles. They will all be new roles for the firm. Continue reading “Taylor Wessing follows northshore wave with 10-lawyer Liverpool launch”
Freshfields is acting for the official receiver
One of the largest UK insolvencies for years, the collapse of construction giant Carillion is poised to have a wide-ranging impact on a number of industries, not least among the most prominent restructuring and insolvency advisers in the City. Continue reading “Carillion collapse: Global 100 firms take centre stage as construction giant enters liquidation”
Capping off a challenging year, Slater and Gordon (S&G) is to close four of its UK offices as it seeks to consolidate its operations.
S&G, which saw its UK revenues for 2017 decline by 17%, told staff on Monday (27 November) that it plans to relocate employees from smaller regional outposts to the firm’s larger UK offices. The firm’s branches in Chester, Wrexham and Milton Keynes will be closed, while S&G’s Preston office will close when the lease on the premises runs out next summer. The firm currently has 14 offices in the UK. Continue reading “Slater and Gordon to close four UK offices amid further upheaval”
Five New York-based partners left Ashurst in July for US finance firm Chapman and Cutler, with a sixth partner departing for Allen & Overy (A&O) last month.
Partners Patrick Quill, David Nirenberg, Steven Kopp, Doug Bird and Tom Glushko all left Ashurst, completing the full departure of the ten-partner team the firm hired from McKee Nelson in 2009 to launch a structured finance practice.
Pity the poor business support staff. A week after Pinsent Masons confirmed that it was consulting on cutting 100 non-legal jobs, Hogan Lovells has announced that around 90 roles in its London arm are likely to go as part of a restructuring of its business.
About 78 business service roles and 12 legal support roles will be phased out or transferred to the firm’s West Midlands legal service centre or South African global business services hub.
With growing pressure on firms to increase efficiency in the delivery of legal services through technology, as many as 100 legal personal assistant (PA) roles at Pinsent Masons are at risk of redundancy following a consultation launched by the firm.
The consultation will end by November and could affect any of the firm’s UK offices. Continue reading “100 PA jobs at risk as technology push leads Pinsent Masons to redundancy consultation”
LB100 firm Bevan Brittan has brought 90 administrative staff back into the firm, ending its six-year agreement with Intelligent Office UK – which takes outsourced services from professional services firms. Continue reading “Back in-house: Bevan Brittan ends outsourcing agreement to bring 90 admin staff into the firm”
Senior management discuss closures in non-essential markets
Simon Levine, DLA Piper’s global co-chief executive, has said that the firm’s recent office closures in Berlin, Tbilisi and Canberra are a result of ‘nothing more than a mature business reviewing strategically where it needs to be from time to time’.
Continue reading “DLA Piper resolute as it shuts down three minor offices in a month”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has promoted around 40 of its personal assistants (PAs) to executive assistant after about 80 applied for the newly-created roles as part of a review of 180 staff. Continue reading “Freshfields promotes 40 to executive assistant but will recruit more in support staff review”
