Shoosmiths has just confirmed that it is to make 93 staff redundant. 93. That makes Herbert Smith look like rank amateurs.

They are all in its consumer legal services arm, largely its volume motor personal injury team in Basingstoke.

The firm justifies this clusterf*ck by claiming that it is focussing on "legal disciplines that align more closely with its business brand", and apparently this is a thoroughly good thing. Its statement is below. Why would anyone think this a sensible thing to release after ruining the lives of nearly 100 people?

David Palmer, who heads up the private client practice group, said: “Shoosmiths has been growing organically for the last eight years by expanding its commercial services through strategic lateral hires.

“One of the firm’s key objectives was to sustain its national private client offering whilst re-balancing away from very high volume bulk processing of personal injury work, where it is increasingly difficult to leverage the specialist legal expertise for which we are renowned.

"The desired re-balancing has now been achieved. We have well established relationships with referrers who value exceptional service quality, and we have an innovative direct-to-consumer channel through our Access Legal brand.

“Together, these deliver a very valuable case flow albeit not one that requires the current processing team size. Whilst we have been reducing our motor personal injury team size gradually over the last three years, we need now to undertake a more fundamental restructure.

"Going forward, we expect our private client practice to grow strongly through its ability to deliver exceptional service and expertise in the more complex aspects of private client work.  The consumer offering will be fully aligned to the Shoosmiths business brand and allow us to provide our clients with a distinctively comprehensive offering."

Jeez.

More in tomorrow's edition.