Clifford Chance fights landmark redundancy claim from former partners
21 August 2009
Allen & Overy's problems with its former Frankfurt associates are as nothing compared with Clifford Chance's German woes. RollOnFriday can reveal that at least two non-equity partners from the firm's Düsseldorf office have sued CC before the local Labour Court.

The former partners, victims of the "Project Shape" reshuffle, claim that they are in fact not shareholders but employees. This may not sound significant, but the consequences of a finding in their favour could be colossal. Employees in Germany are almost perfectly protected by the Unfair Dismissal Act - it's much harder to kick them out than to give partners the heave ho. If Clifford Chance is on the hook for this then former fixed share partners from every other major firm could also try their luck. Freshfields in particular must be keeping a very wary eye on developments, given the dozens of legacy Bruckhaus and Deringer partners it booted out a couple of years ago.

Clearly CC will do whatever it can to prevent this. Rumor has it that one case has already been settled, the other must surely follow. If so, these guys are going to coin it.

Kerching!

A spokeswoman for the firm said that "the claim relates to two of our German salaried partners who were asked to leave the firm as a result of our partnership restructure. We believe the case to have no merit whatsoever and will be defending our position accordingly."