Let your next career move come to you.

Exclusive: Walker Morris shuts PI practice and axes 48 jobs
Walker Morris is closing down its personal injury practice and making all 48 staff redundant.

The Leeds firm told RollOnFriday that over the last 12 months it tried to drum up business by rebranding its PI venture as 'Distinctly Legal' and by taking a "direct to market" approach. But a spokeswoman said the strategy of picking a crap new name and cold calling grannies to see if they'd fallen under a lorry "has not achieved the results that we anticipated".
 

  A personal injury lawyer misunderstanding "direct to market" yesterday

Walker Morris, like collapsing PI firms around the country, blamed its decision on the "continuing turmoil" caused by Legal Aid reforms. Managing Partner Ian Gilbert told RollOnFriday "despite having a very capable and committed team within Distinctly Legal...this is not a market in which Walker Morris can differentiate itself". The result is that four lawyers and a whopping 44 staff who manned the phones will lose their jobs.

The firm will now return to its core practice areas, having failed to build an empire on exaggerated whiplash injuries and unfortunate kerb trips.
 
Tip Off ROF

Comments

Anonymous 22 November 13 10:28

The 'Distinctly legal' idea was always doomed to fail. Makes you wonder who signed this idea off and at what cost! Without a guaranteed source of new work coming in, to simply rely upon internet and direct client referalls is never going to set the firm apart, all extremely amatuerish.

Anonymous 27 June 14 14:18

Remember 48 people have lost their jobs here. WM Claims was a highly professional subsidiary of WM and whilst the name change may have been unnecessary the calibre of its staff was exceptionally good. Remember also that the majority of PI claims are genuine and they performed a necessary and worthwhile function. Sad times causded simply by an over zealous government in the pockets of Insurers, neither of whom can think beyond broad brush strategies.