Freshfields rumoured to slash partners in project "shape and slim"
14 July 2006

Rumours are circulating that up to a hundred partners at Freshfields may be moved down the equity as part of a radical project dubbed "shape and slim".

Freshfields has already abandoned its pure-equity partnership model by introducing salaried partners. The firm is keen to stress that this can provide more opportunities for ambitious young assistants - but is less keen on the suggestion that a night of the long knives is in the offing for established partners. A spokeswoman denied that there's any centralised policy, and said that decisions would be made by each practice group.

But we've heard that departments and offices had been told to free up certain levels of equity, and it's going to be bloody. The project has just started but the City is already littered with CVs of anxious Fleet Street partners, and partners in Germany have started to wear their brown trousers to the office.

An under-performing Freshfields partner next week

Ultimately this is inevitable as firms are driven by US competition to take an increasingly cold look at profitability - Linklaters went through the same exercise ages ago. Partners who've had it easy for too long will now have to start justifying their drawings, which is all part of the process by which the old world of the City partner (port, long lunches and crumpets at teatime) is finally being replaced by hard-nosed financial reality.