Hope they kick out the underperformed partners who add little value aside from keep-busy meetings to have a presence.

sad truth is that Fieldfisher, like many firms, now has an excess of PAs who spend half of their days twiddling their thumbs or scrolling through social media as lawyers become more self-sufficient and work from home the majority of the time. I am more concerned by the firms laying off fee earners. 

We did this in 2012.  Almost a decade late FFS. 

I'm guessing "Sorrybut" had met my wife then. 

I'd feel sorry for them if my experience with law firm secretaries wasn't that they see lawyers as the enemy and refuse to do work.

It's about time PAs woke up to the fact that their working world has changed forever and that much of what they did in the past simply isn't needed anymore.  That isn't to say they can't play a part and there is much value to be gained from working well with a skilled, competent and willing PA. They do exist and these won't be the PAs on the firing line at FF

It's sad that many secretaries don't seek opportunities to demonstrate the value they can add.  One of the few secretaries who has made a single appearance in our office since early March spends much of the day chatting.  She may find it hard to find a job that pays as well.  There's no way I can point this out or, if I did, it would be heeded.  It's so obvious where this will end.

Word from insiders: Kirkland & Ellis has cut too. 

SPB is wielding the axe and chopping roles, including fee earners, in the London office. Loads of PAs are getting dumped.

So how many PAs are there per fee earner? Where I used to work it was 2:1, now it is 1:2. 

I know a firm that put their secretaries on furlough then all redundant, and the fee earners that were affected by this did not know how to do any admin work! Same scenario in most firms! 

sorrybut has a point. I speak as a high-level PA. The reason why I'm gainfully employed (wfh and not being forced to return to an unsafe office) is because I have proved adaptable and highly skilled at what I do (I still think a monkey could do what I do, but evidence proves the contrary, sadly).  Yet frankly I still find it unbelievable I am paid the salary I am, and even more unbelievable that people I worked with were paid the same or even more to basically sit on the internet all day every day and occasionally type something. (past tense because they all got made redundant allegedly due to Covid, no I don't work for Fieldfisher).  Yet paralegals get paid next to nothing.  I detest my job, but I need to pay the rent, what can you do.  The things I'd actually prefer to do all pay less.

It really depends on the team you're in and the requirements of the job.  Some teams will suit the new hubs that are being created where ratios are 1 PA to 10/12 fee earners and these PAs may still not be particularly busy, but others require more admin support and busy fee earners don't have time to be chasing up unpaid bills, counsel's fees, purchase orders, who's attending what seminar and the like.  

Many PA roles do not actually involve much typing these days and giving non fee generating work to fee earners is going to impact on revenue.

I'm a PA with nearly 30 year experience. The job has changed beyond recognition since the 1990, either you adapt or you're out. 

So far there have been no redundancies at our firm but this crisis has clearly shown who takes their job seriously and who doesn't. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the younger PAs disappear.

Efficiencies at my firm are long overdue.  No mention as of yet with respect to redundancies, but we are seriously over staffed, even before Covid.  Whilst I get the fact that I work for a law firm and lawyers are first priority - I wish management had better managed support staff and that there was more transparency with respect to expectations generally.  Although, having said that, if management had dealt with poor performance earlier, it wouldn’t be obvious now who is most likely to be let go.

I have had a secretary since 2012 and I don't use her for anything part from submitting my expenses. Only the dinosaur managing partner uses his secretary like it's 1977. We could save the firm thousands of dollars by cutting secretaries who are simply not needed.

@ FakePartner

So you manage your own diary, including creating and amending appointments and dealing with any follow ups.  You book your own travel, including dealing with last minute alterations such as plane delays meaning you miss connections / meetings.  You create and send your own invoices and follow up on any unpaid ones.  You manage all internal seminars, including catering and ensuring all dietary requirements are catered for ?  If so, then I question how much money you make your firm as a lawyer.

Sounds like possibly your firm could save thousands by cutting you ... ?

Fake Partner.

You sound like a dinosaur. Wow imagine having to send out a meeting invite on outlook or teams yourself. Must be tough! A lot quicker to tell a secretary who to invite, their email addresses and the day and time of the meeting and then to check it has been done correctly.

And I don't think you will be doing any overseas meetings anymore.

Don't you have a marketing team for seminars and a finance team for invoices?