Insiders at Addleshaw Goddard have claimed that the firm is making only statutory minimum redundancy payments to the 24 staff it has laid off.

The firm denied this, saying it is "factually incorrect", but refused to provide the figures "for obvious reasons". Reasons that weren't so obvious back in 2008 when Addleshaws was only too happy to discuss the enhanced package it was offering. So presumably it'll be statutory minimum plus a bag of chips and a novelty pen.

Addleshaws yesterday

That's an embarrassing situation for a firm that has recently announced a 30% rise in profits. But money may be tighter than it looks. Addleshaws invested thousands of hours acting for Berezovsky in his case against Abramovich - a case Berezovsky resoundingly lost last week. And that is seriously bad news for Addleshaws as it acted on a conditional fee arrangement, although apparently it was "no win low fee" rather than "no win no fee". But the firm will still have lost millions, and many partners will be querying why the firm accepted such a fee structure from a man who is a billionaire.