Rival City firms decline repeat of CC job cuts

The bulk of the City’s top 10 law firms have stated that they will not be following Clifford Chance’s (CC’s) lead with formal redundancies in London in the immediate future.
Magic circle firm Linklaters was the only firm that refused to comment, with all of the remaining firms saying they had no lawyer job cuts in the pipeline.
Allen & Overy (A&O), the firm regarded by many as the most likely to make cuts after CC as a result of its large finance practice, said it had no imminent plans.
The firm said in a statement: “Like any business we cannot rule out the possibility of having to make targeted redundancies in particular practice groups or offices if there is a sustained downturn or if there are exceptional business reasons.”
Ashurst, Herbert Smith, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Norton Rose, Lovells, Slaughter and May and Simmons & Simmons all said that they are not planning to make cuts, with many hoping to avoid them entirely.
Partners within Linklaters, as well as ex-partners, suggest that the firm’s emphasis is on clamping down on underperformance at both associate and partner level rather than formal redundancy programmes.
Ashurst managing partner Simon Bromwich (pictured) said: “We have not made any lawyers redundant and have no current intention to do so although, given the economic climate, we are keeping all aspects of the firm’s business under careful review.”
Slaughters practice partner Paul Olney commented: “Our strong client base, our multispecialist approach and the cautious management of the firm means that we have not in previous downturns ever had to announce a round of redundancies and we have no current plans to do so.”
CC announced last week that up to 80 London lawyers are expected to lose their jobs as a result of the market downturn, with 880 lawyers involved in the consultation.
Support jobs are also expected to go as CC has been reviewing the function for the last year and launched a full consultation at the end of the year. Further details are expected to be released once a report has gone to management in the next few weeks. The firm, which saw revenues dip by between 5% and 7% during the first half of the year, is regarded as having fared worse than its London peers due to its heavy exposure to practice areas such as private equity and capital markets.
Author: Emma Sadowski and Jeremy Hodges