Norton Rose Fulbright is making 30 staff redundant in Australia, at the same time as cancelling its Christmas bonus for London support staff.

The firm confirmed that 18 support staff and 12 fee-earners were laid off last week. Only Australia is affected, with the firm describing it as "a local response to a local market". A spokeswoman said that it was a difficult decision but “like other professional services firms in Australia, we have responded to changes in the local market".

    Bugga

NRF isn't alone in finding itself in some difficulties down under. DLA Piper and Ashurst both made redundancies at the end of last year, with DLA subsequently confirming that it had failed to meet its budget in the region and Herbert Smith Freehills freezing pay. Now that the rush to snap up Aussie firms has settled down, many firms have found themselves with too many staff, pressure on fees and a quieter market than they'd anticipated.

Meanwhile, over in London, support staff at NRF's City HQ were told that they will no longer be getting their traditional Christmas bonus. The news came in a letter which said that the bonus will be cancelled from 2014. Bah humbug. As one insider says, "all the while the Aston Martins, Porsches and Jaguars multiply voraciously in the partners' car park".

A spokeswoman for the firm said that the scheme was closed to new joiners three years ago, which has resulted in a situation where some staff receive the bonus and others don't. It's now closing the scheme to all, although "while this may seem un-festive, we are obviously aware that Christmas is just around the corner, and have given 12 months’ notice to the people this will affect".
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Comments

Anonymous 23 November 13 09:06

It was blooming obvious the Australian mining boom would slow when China slowed down. Funny how firms can merge even when basic economic facts are sitting there right in front of them.

Anonymous 24 November 13 10:04

If it is unfair that only some employees get the bonus now - give it to everyone instead - genius!! NRF are very quick to forget harder times when their support staff agreed to reduced hours and pay to support the company and reduce redundancies - they seem to be rewarded with having their (meagre) Christmas bonus taken away. Fair?

Anonymous 25 November 13 18:42

So have they abandoned the "flex" policy or is it that they are two separate firms with a common name?