BLM's managing partner has left the firm suddenly after just eight months.

Gary Allison assumed the Managing Partner role for a three year term when he took over from longtime MP Andrew Relton on 1 December 2016. At the time Senior Partner Mike Brown said that Allison, "has all the experience and credentials to make a real difference in the months and years ahead”. 

It turns out there were just months ahead. Sources told RollOnFriday that the only evidence of Allison's departure was the quiet removal of his profile from BLM's website. There was no announcement of his exit or a replacement. When approached by RollOnFriday, a spokeswoman for BLM denied that he had been given the boot and said, “Gary Allison has decided to retire from BLM to pursue other interests. Gary would like to thank his colleagues for the last 23 years’ of support and wishes BLM all the success in the future”. Asked for the identity of the new MP, she said "we shall be announcing this next week to the firm".

If it sounds unusual for a firm to have no new managing partner in place when the old one retires, that's because it is.

  "Hello BLM, Otto is now flying the firm." 

BLM hurriedly announced that Vivienne Williams, a veteran partner and the head of its Manchester claims team, would be the new MP. Accepting the poisoned chalice new position, she said, “I have worked here for almost 30 years and I have seen so much positive change". Last year BLM posted a 28% drop in profits per equity partner alongside a 3.5% increase in revenue. In June, as revealed by RollOnFriday, the firm initiated a mass axing of secretaries.

When RollOnFriday broke the news of the vanishing MP this week, which was a surprise to most BLM staff, one commented that management had been overheard describing BLM's facilities management teams as "turkeys and it's Christmas". Sure enough, this week inside sources told RollOnFriday that BLM had placed "all" its facilities management staff on notice of redundancy, with voluntary redundancy offers made to other support staff across the firm.

A spokeswoman for BLM said, "We are in the process of reviewing our corporate services team which includes facilities management". She said, "As we adapt our organisation to meet the needs of our customers and the market, it is critical that our business support departments are modernised and this proposal will see the department adopting a recognised industry structure”.

As a BLM staffer asked in RollOnFriday's Firm of the Year 2017 survey, "What's going on at BLM?" 
 
Tip Off ROF

Comments

Anonymous 20 July 17 23:00

BLM law....now that would make a great sitcom,with plenty of business talk one liner catch phrases, and plenty of hilarious characters ....A mix of the Office and Fawlty Towers.

Anonymous 21 July 17 08:29

zzzzzzzz change the record. I have worked at places doing a similar thing to this firm. They are trying to modernise their business as you've said in the story. You can't do that if you keep things the same. Granted the MP stuff is unfortunate but restructures and consultations are inevitable if you want change. Can you go back to reporting the real 'scandal' now Roll on Friday?!

Anonymous 21 July 17 09:43

Am I just being cynical thinking that all of the salaries saved with the redundancies would make up the 28% fall in equity partner profits????

Anonymous 21 July 17 09:54

So Gary Allison would like to thank all of his colleagues....has he lost the use of his fingers and is now unable to type the 'thank you' himself. It's no coincidence that he sat on the executive board and so was privvy to what was coming!! At last, someone in BLM management with a conscience or is he just hoping that the clients who are jumping ship will follow him to the firm he's setting up on his own? Erm, sorry, retiring!!!

Anonymous 21 July 17 10:05

It is getting boring and must be hell if you work there. I did work there but got out when the 1st signs of this impending doom was first mentioned in 2014. Saying that I did wonder when all those non fee earning [nee non job] roles would start to hurt. Over the last 3 years they went through some mad recruitment of non job roles. This seemed to coincide with that ex-call centre manager and her HR management style. Why did they ever need a reward manager or a talent ..... role on 20k is beyond me. Never mind its all business necessary and ultimately to stop PEP falling below 200k! It also keeps at least 1 Manchester partner busy even if its only him doing non-chargeable internal HR stuff.

Anonymous 21 July 17 10:27

last firm that lost its MP without a replacement did alright didn't it? KWM are still around, sort of. Love the strategy to boost PEP - sack all the support staff, that'll help!!!!

Anonymous 21 July 17 11:30

Anon at 10:27am....who are BLM? They used to be BLM but now only known as BL since M has been made redundant :-)

Anonymous 21 July 17 13:34

Backwards Legal Morons.
When I worked there in 2015 there was a Partner in the disease team (answering to [redacted]) who thought that scanning things onto the CMS was against the Data Protection Act.
Also, having a headset for your phone was a 'security risk'.
Good luck modernising the stonehenge of the Defendant Insurance legal sector.

Anonymous 21 July 17 13:44

Call me naïve if you like but wouldn't a better way of increasing PEP be to reduce the number of equity partners (many of whom you couldn't figure out what they were doing anyway) and hold on to some of the actual fee earners who were shoved out in the last rounds of redundancies. Strikes me that if the firm have lost so much work and clients it's the partners who have been asleep on the job, have let down their many colleagues (both gone and still employed (for now..)) and are ultimately responsible for the situation BLM finds itself in.

Anonymous 21 July 17 14:15

More maulings - FM got called in by a mixture of Senior Partners and the HR assassin, no doubt there were a couple of contractor flunkies in their as well preparing the knives. Anyway, true to Browns email they are butchering the national support teams masquerading it as a restructure whilst inviting people to apply for their own jobs. BLM is a soulless dead body, rotting like a corpse in the heat whilst being chopped up by self serving butchers devouring the fly invested flesh - the question is, who's next?

Anonymous 21 July 17 15:20

When's Big Viv gonna strap on the Wonder Woman super hero lycra and rescue the place from oblivion?

Anonymous 21 July 17 19:16

"Adopting a recognised industry structure "
Hey!... I thought Mr Brown said BLM are leaders....not followers.

Roll On Friday 21 July 17 21:56

All fur coat and no knickers at BLM......actually even the fur is fake. Shambles of an office in London

Anonymous 22 July 17 00:30

8.54am. Wasn't Gary responsible for losing the NHSLA. What clients exactly are going to his 'new firm'!? Not easy setting up a new defendant law firm in this climate ..would require a client following and huge capital investment.

Anonymous 22 July 17 20:58

Meanwhile Brown's spies..oops I mean Project Graphene staff, slither from floor to floor preparing the dossier on who should stay and who should be culled.

Anonymous 22 July 17 21:07

Gary Allison was the most strategic leader, he never shied away from dealing with issues. He could have made a real difference and turned the firm around. He wasn't given the chance. Mike Brown on the other hand ...

Anonymous 22 July 17 21:58

As a current employee of this cowboy penny pinching firm......... I would say bring back GAZZA !

Anonymous 22 July 17 23:29

Thanks to ROF BLM has finally been shamed for the workplace that it is. For far too long it's been kept in house where people have suffered silently. Not anymore, it's out and the Management are either being force fed their medicine or simply taking the easy way out. Thank you ROF.

Anonymous 23 July 17 00:16

BLM continue to bring in contractors that talk the talk but fail to walk the walk. This firmwide 'restructure' has been handled poorly and now hard-working staff will be thrown out like trash to make way for said contractors and their unjustified high wages. We are not turkeys. We are not janitors. Stop over paying in other departments (yes HR we're looking at you) and all of this could have been avoided.

Anonymous 23 July 17 05:17

Just so glad I went when I did. Since we merged in 2014 nothing but grief. Back to hitler days. Mike brown, well what can you say! As for LMcT well that's another story. Good luck to those who remain - you will need it! ????????

Anonymous 23 July 17 22:20

The idea that BLM's problems are down to overpaying a few people in HR is ridiculous. The problems go back many many years....too many mediocre people overpromoted as partnets (who brought nothing to the firm), too many support staff (compare fe:non fe ratios with other comparable firms), competing for low end volume fixed fee work, an absence of any proper management, partners paying themselves too much (and using increasing debt to finance this). The firm has been putting off hard decisions for years but now proble ms are being compounded by significant client losses and departure of key staff-eg. Renshaw Southampton.

Anonymous 24 July 17 11:14

Make no mistake about it BLM's problems are down to the management but more specifically Mike Brown. Gone are the good old days when BLM was known as a good place to work. You only have to look at how many long standing equity partners have jumped ship since Mr Brown took over. Bring back the good old days when Terry Renouf ran the firm!

Anonymous 24 July 17 11:24


Why go to the trouble of doing a staff survey if you’re not going to publish the results? What are you scared of Mr Brown, publish those results!

Anonymous 24 July 17 12:05

It’s no wonder the results of the staff survey have not been made public. When Mike Brown went on a tour of all the offices his idea of uplifting the troops was to tell staff “if you don’t like it you know where the door is”. Not a great way to encourage one’s workforce!

Anonymous 24 July 17 14:54

Got to hand it to BLM though. Employ good spin doctors and 'bad news supressors'. All the events of the past year or so (mass walkings in Southampton, mass redundancies, lower pep, loss of major clients, leaping MP etc) if you look at the firm's 'official channels' none of the above ever happened......

Anonymous 24 July 17 15:21

The 'loss' of a few non key people in Southampton has made no dent to BLM. You forget this is the leading insurance practice in the UK and the global aspirations will soon be fulfilled.

Anonymous 24 July 17 16:44

Anon user 14.21 I would have given your post a thumbs down also but I suspect it was just a little tongue in cheek...........

Anonymous 24 July 17 19:30

Ssshhh! Be quiet, there was no survey, the management are sticking their heads in the sands until the mess goes away.

Anonymous 24 July 17 21:49

I'm guessing they're desperately trying to find a way to put a positive spin on the survey results.
It will probably go along the lines of "more positives than negatives "....and that will be the end of it.

Anonymous 25 July 17 08:11

It's been several months the since they asked staff to complete the survey. If there was anything positive about the results we'd have known about it. They should be brave enough to accept their failings as business owners and leaders.

Anonymous 25 July 17 09:27

They may well be 'brave' enough to accept the findings and any failings....doesn't mean they have to advertise those simply to appear on RoF! Why does this survey bother you all so much? You all seem agreed that it's an awful place to work anyway. Why are you staying there?

Anonymous 25 July 17 10:07

Most of you people are vile trolls. If you want examples of unpleasant behaviour you need to take a good long look at yourselves.

Anonymous 25 July 17 10:13

The only virtuous nee vicious cycle about this story is the firm's total failure to work together. Instead you have a culture of fear imposed by a HR demi god who threatens sanctions for alleged insubordination at every turn. Its a law firm not a call centre, love!. Add in the cronyism and the stock piling of good work to a limited number of "star quality" favorites then its a recipe for utter disaster. Total dysfunction; so much for a clear and concise....I forget the third C? future! U may be the biggest insurance practice [that's moot] but u are not too big to fail! Watch this space.

Anonymous 25 July 17 10:19

Drastic steps being taken quickly to keep the doors open. In too much of a mess to merge, competitors have looked at them to strip them down but again a complete mess, from top to bottom. Completely unattractive as a business entity let alone for a place to earn a living. No one wants them so they are desperately trying to survive by agressive restructering.

Anonymous 25 July 17 10:25

08:27 - Scab alert! You must be a very odd individual to support the managements approach to staff cleansing. I think given the staff had waited so long to provide honest feedback without fear of being sent off the the nearest gulag and he fact both the MP and SP have promised the results it's reasonable to expect them someone this year.

Anonymous 25 July 17 17:17

Just came online to check if the staff survey result were out. Not on the intranet so thought this would be the place?

Anonymous 25 July 17 20:51

Not difficult to work out. Who has gone abruptly usually at a mid point in the working week + within the last 3-4 months.

Anonymous 26 July 17 13:47

Just left BLM, London office was an awful place to work. I actually felt it was having an effect on my health. the attitude towards fee earners, paralegals especially is awful, they have a vision to become a global firm by 2020 but don't realise that its the people working hard on the ground that will help get them there and maintain their reputation. completed a survey results must've been diabolical for them not to mention them.

Anonymous 26 July 17 16:33

If Tweedledum was not a reality it would be a complete joke. Not even all those confidentiality clauses can hide her shocking grab for power and the firm's condoning of unfair and intimidatory conduct towards staff. Glad its all finally exposed/exploded rather than kept silent within the firm's hidden rotten core. Well done ROF. and all those who got out or were "managed" out. It is better elsewhere.

Anonymous 26 July 17 21:29

It wasn't that long ago that a company would have a Personnel Manger, there job was to look after all staff And Their Interests, and fight their corner.
Then out of nowhere they self elevated themselves to the grand title of HR Director, this enabled them to have power and stroll about full of their own self importance.
They then seemed to forget that the staff have rights and needs, but are to worried about more important things like making themselves noticed by the top boys.
They even started to be able to make suggestions about how to make the top boys more money at the expense of the workers.
In return they were rewarded with inflated salaries,bonus's and swanky client party's and the like.
And of course, when serious decisions have to be made, they get the real HR staff to do the dirty work and keep out of sight.

Anonymous 27 July 17 09:27

25/07/17 @ 8.27am - the staff survey bothers people so much because it is often via this type of media where prospective employees form a view on whether they might wish to work for that firm. In this case though, staff survey results are not important since the views of current and ex staff on ROF will be sufficient to let any person with an ounce of self respect that BLM is a firm that you wouldn't touch with a barge pole. It is no coincidence that a certain Liverpool team had 3 fee earners hand their notice in on the same day and, when asked if there is anything that BLM could do to make them stay, the answer was a resounding 'No!'. The firm is run by weak partners who have no power and no courage to stand up to Mike Brown. Is that the firm anyone wants to work for? I think not.

Anonymous 27 July 17 17:51

Anon. 20.29. You're spelling is atrocious. If you are a fee earner for BLM then no wonder they is in trouble.

Anonymous 28 July 17 10:20

So, the staff survey results are out

33% either don't want to work at BLM or are unwilling to commit to a positive answer.
57% are alledgly proud too?
The latter will be partners/managers/brown noses

35% either intend to leave BLM within 12 months or unwilling to commit to a positive answer.
65% reckons BLM is the place to be?! Bawhahahahah!
The latter will be partners/managers/brown noses

Anonymous 28 July 17 10:48

One third didn't even bother to take part in the sham survey, over 500 people! That's a different level of staff disengagement, beaten into submission.

Anonymous 28 July 17 12:20

Remember of course that the survey did take place some time ago. A lot has happened since then including a fair number of people who completed the survey being given the old 'heave-ho' in the meantime. (Even if they DID think it was a great place to work). Sad really, because some years back it was.....

Anonymous 28 July 17 13:12

Ha ha....all backtracking now the survey results are our and generally very positive of the firm...you planks!!

Anonymous 28 July 17 19:11

If these are the real results....then it must be only the London office where every member of staff Hates it at BLM.
Everyone talks about it openly now and don't care who hears. them.

Anonymous 28 July 17 19:52

You BLM staff are just pathetically wet. No wonder management can treat you so poorly (if it's true and the survey results don't support the few moaners here on RoF). Why don't you people just get other jobs? Is it because you are such poor quality that no-one else would employ you?

Anonymous 28 July 17 20:28

Ha ha and obviously you are top quality and that is why you have an exodus of clients and staff and profits are nose diving.
Top quality lawyers don't put in the lowest bids for work because they are so needy. They don't take clients to mens clubs.
They value their junior staff recognising that they are the ones who feather their nests.

Anonymous 29 July 17 03:28

So facilities management, reception staff, mailmen, photocopy men and general dogsbodies have been put on notice now re redundancies. How many over paid HR staff have been put on notice? Not a difficult question. Wee numph and her staff are fine while the chop everyone else's jobs. Mike brown you are so far up our own backside. GEt back to the real world. You are not as good as you think you are! You are obviously of the opinion the firm couldn't do without you, well how many major contracts have you lost in past couple of years ????????

Anonymous 30 July 17 10:56

Mailmen...how quaint that you still have those! Have you guys heard of the Internet?? No doubt you are still using digital dictation and think you are really advanced!?