In related news, "The acquisition marks Lawhive’s entry into the regulated legal sector, with the aim of combining lawyers’ expertise with in-house AI tools." https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/09/google-backed-ai-platform-buys-law-f…  Obviously, in a modern example of semantic drift, "combining"  means "replacing"

I was a paralegal in Freshfield's London office about 6 years ago. [Some of] the Manchester paralegals we sometimes had to work with were awful -- workshy and stupid. In my view this comes 6 years too late.

Does AI do disclosure (both in criminal and civil work and as a comparison between the two?) as if so Womble Bond Dickinson and Mr Parsons and Mr Beezer and the folk at Cartwright King, and many of the other lawyers who gave evidence thereat, might be well-advised, given their (frankly unbelievable) evidence at the PO Horizon Scandal Public Inquiry to have a look!

Celebrating the loss of 20 jobs because you didnt enjoy working with people new to the profession six years ago is some wild stuff. Average paralegal turnover is about two years so odds are those people left a long time ago. Victory lapping young people losing their income is frankly pretty vile. Do better.

For a firm that claims to champion social mobility, the decision to make half their Paralegal workforce redundant in Manchester, a city that needs better quality legal jobs, leaves a sour taste. Manchester paralegals at Freshfields have had their contributions overlooked for a long time whilst being underpaid and overworked. Disappointing but not surprising from Freshfields to make hard working young people redundant in the name of AI. 

Well, back in my day—when the world was young and lawyers still walked uphill both ways in the snow—we didn’t just kickstart paralegal redundancies; we kicked them off the cliff and made them swim. Freshfields doing this is about as subtle as a raccoon in the pantry at midnight. I remember a time when a lawyer’s handshake meant something—now it’s more like a dagger in the ribs, followed by a polite “sorry, but you’re out.” And don’t even get me started on these ladder houses—I once lived in a house built entirely of ladders, climbed up one rung too many, then slipped, and by the time I hit the ground the litigation had already begun. Honestly, these redundancies are the corporate equivalent of that wobbly ladder collapse: precarious, unnecessary, and entirely confusing to anybody with even a shred of common sense.

I worked in the Manchester office 6 years ago. [Most of] the London paralegals were great, but there was one proper ***t

Microsoft Co-Pilot means most of those paralegals will leave and few will notice. 

The current London office can barely clean their own arses without the wipe being guided by the Manchester office, just out for anything they can get on the back of the hard work up North. Arrogant, entitled, and short sighted - it’s clear to see their hiring practices haven’t changed in 6 years judging by the w*nker that shared how thrilled he is that people are losing their livelihoods. I’m sure London will notice these redundancies when there’s nobody to do the work they take credit for. 

there is more to this news story. finance are at risk too. that department is being moved to Bratislava -cheaper obviously!

Logical and brutal playing out of the partnership model, London partners make £2.5m per annum, Freshfields Manchester paralegals start on £19k (6p per hour above minimum wage), and top out at £25k. So 100:1 ratio and partner’s protecting their earnings at the expense of young paralegals in Manchester (who are overworked and undervalued). Will be interesting to see if clients are still willing to pay inflated charging rates for paralegals given they’ll know half of them are going. 

The article fails to mention that redundancies are also happening in other departments in Manchester - HR, Finance, and Document Specialists - where roles are being moved to Bratislava.

Along with the Manchester Paralegals, other fee earner roles are affected. Unconfirmed rumours that Associate teams in London along with Transaction Lawyers in Germany will be also be impacted.

Unfortunately, this won't be the last time they make redundancies. Freshfields have form having gone through a similar process in Manchester back in 2022.

12:48 anonymous, minimum wage in the UK is now like 22k a year so 19k sounds highlight unlikely pal

Presumably the HR department will also be let go, given they likely used AI to draft the redundancy messaging

If I was wheeled out as a spokesperson to give such a worthless, generic statement then I would also be a little bit worried about AI myself.  

I suppose a human must have drafted that as it is bang up to date flannel, not a 'strengthening existing synergies across our core businesses " or "maximising our client value proposition" to be seen.

Anonymous at 12:48: the Manchester paralegals are not underpaid and overworked -- they are literally redundant (i.e. the opposite).

Anonymous at 14:46: You’re aware that employees can be overworked and underpaid and yet still have their roles made redundant just because a company wants to cut costs, right?

They outsource the document specialists, they bring them back in, they put them in the praactice groups, they centralise them in one office, then they outsource them again.

It's an endless roundabout of stupid.

Just accept that you're never going to get 100% utilisation, get competent people and pay them enough to put up with your arrogant, Oxbridge shit.

Anonymous at 14:46: or they are underpaid and overworked (and undervalued) but the greedy higher ups just want to a bit more extra in their own pockets (like they don’t get enough) at the expense of talented people just beginning their legal careers. This will just lead to those who remain after this cull being even more overworked for no extra pay. Let’s not forget Freshfields upped NQ and trainee pay last year and gave NOTHING to everyone else.

Anonymous at 20:11

Poo poo bum bum 

Anonymous at 2011 the NQs at Freshfields are the cream of the crop and it is laughable to compare them to the monkeys they hire at the Manchester Zoo. It is quite right both that the London NQs should be paid a lot more year on year (to attract talent) and that the Manchester paraweasels should be made redundant (because they are redundant).

AI lives forever. So AI trained on the internet will perpetuate the angry white male vision of the world. If you fire junior humans, you fire the society's ability to change. The non-existing AI white male will be doing work and eventually deciding things. Eventually, the real society will be fully controlled, smart people and dumb people together will be jobless and society will start to blame each other and lead to internal conflict. But that's not the end, external conflicts which have already started will also play a role in the future. Whichever country doesn't control the internet will lose big.

The economy has started to affect lawyers. Nothing much. Whoever uses the opportunity to play the blame game or point out who's stupid and smart is an absolute tool (let's believe that he is smart and employed to sit in some box, but he will have to work like a slave). 

....

The announcements in Manchester felt cruel and insensitive-those visiting from London and Bratislava seemed very pleased with themselves and they forgot they were dealing with people not spreadsheets

I’m one of these Manchester paralegals who left Freshfields a few weeks ago, before this was announced. It’s nothing new. Back in 2022, when I joined straight out of uni, they made around a third of the Legal Department redundant, right before the Christmas party. Worst Christmas party ever. Magic Circle stamp on a swamp of a firm. Thankfully, I’ve just taken up an in-house paralegal role for nearly double the pay. There's better options out there lads (and ladettes).

They carry on making redundancies without a thought for the teams it will affect.  The leadership team have no idea how stretched people are the how deflated the morale is.  It leaves a particularly sour taste in the mouth when the global partners and spouces are being transported to Paris for a very nice dinner at Versailles this week!  

Beware Skynet!