Four associates at Field Fisher Waterhouse are at risk of being made redundant, and it's likely that 13 solicitors and paralegals employed on a fixed term basis will not have their contracts renewed.

The cuts will hit the firm's Public and Regulatory Group. The group took on a large piece of work back in January and hired a bunch of staff to service it. Now that it's coming to an end, the extra staff are no longer required and most, if not all, will find themselves unemployed just in time for the holidays. Merry Christmas everybody.

To make matters worse, public sector cuts mean there is less work in the department generally - as one insider says, "work has been replaced with tumbleweed". And so the jobs of another four associates are under consultation.

FFW yesterday

 
Matthew Lohn, FFW's Managing Partner, said that “the public regulatory market is changing rapidly, with pressure on the public sector resulting in far more work being brought in-house". This meant that in addition to the loss of those on fixed term contracts "we also need to make a small number of redundancies in our Public and Regulatory Group. We are currently in consultation with four associates whose posts are at risk of redundancy, however I should stress that as part of this process we will be looking at the possibility of finding positions for them elsewhere in the firm."