71 redundancies at Pinsent Masons and Addleshaws
31 August 2012
71 staff at Pinsent Masons and Addleshaw Goddard have come back from their holidays to find that they're out of a job.

RollOnFriday revealed in June that 24 jobs were at risk at Addleshaws pending the result of a consultation. And spookily enough, all 24 jobs have gone. They are all fee-earners from the firm's London, Leeds and Manchester offices. It seems the firm has done some pruning after senior lawyers on big salaries but small prospects refused to budge of their own accord, but it sits very uncomfortably with its 30% hike in profits this year.

A spokesman said that it "been a difficult period for those affected by the consultation and we thank them for their understanding and great professionalism. We wish them well."

There are dark days too at Pinsent Masons. The firm also confirmed that it was planning redundancies back in June. At the time it said up to 40 jobs were at risk, but RollOnFriday reckoned 45, and it now turns out the final figure is 47. Ouch. All the jobs are non fee-earning, and have been made redundant after the firm's takeover of McGrigors created duplicate roles. 40 of them were voluntary.

A spokesman said that all those affected had been offered outplacement support, and acknowledged that "this has obviously been an unsettling time for all of those involved and we are very sorry to have to see colleagues go."

Some outplacement support yesterday

Several managing partners have admitted that they are overlawyered in the UK - expect other firms to follow with more bad news over the coming few months.