Redundancies at Ince & Co, CMS and Ashurst

In a grim week of redundancies, Ince & Co announced that 32 staff have been axed in London, CMS has cut 16 jobs in Reading and Ashurst has culled 54 secretaries.

As forecast last month, Ince & Co has given the boot to seven lawyers and 25 business services staff, with a further three jobs at risk. Global HR Director, Andrew Jameson acknowledged that the restructure had been "unsettling" but that the aim was to ensure that the firm has "the right people, in the right place, doing the right jobs".

Ince & Co's accounts for the last financial year 2016/17 stated that there were 253 staff at the firm, consisting of 120 fee earners and 133 business staff, so cutting 32 staff represents a substantial number. By shrinking its headcount and promoting agile working to staff, the shipping firm will take the Airbnb strategic approach by subletting around 22% of the floor space in its London office.

There is also a cull at CMS as seven of the 16 fee earner positions in the Reading office have been cut. A spokeswoman for the firm told RollOnFriday that Real Estate Asset Management services was the team affected, as the group would now be concentrated in Bristol and Sheffield. She added that "the majority" of the seven lawyers affected "were offered relocation or assigned alternative roles".

via GIPHY

"I'm on my notice perioooood..."

At Ashurst, following the news in May that 80 secretaries were in redundancy consultation, a spokeswoman for the firm has confirmed to RollOnFriday that 54 secretaries will leave the firm. Ashurst is creating new practice executive roles, and 25 current secretaries will be kept on to fill the new position. The firm is also in the process of externally recruiting an additional 12 staff for the new practice executive role.

Ashurst's Head of HR Claire Townshend told RollOnFriday that it had been “a difficult time for those directly affected by the changes and we aimed to deal with the process sensitively, openly and respectfully for those impacted". She added that the firm was "very grateful to our staff for being engaged and professional through this time and we thank them for this."

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Comments

It would cost each partner about £1,000 to retain all 54 secretaries.

PEP is around £670k.

This might have been the best piece of journalism ever, but I had to give up reading it because the gif was making my tired, old eyes bounce around too much.

Ince is only months from imploding. Everybody, take cover!

Yeah I am sure the CMS lawyers based in Reading jumped at the chance to move to Sheffield...

Oh Inces, where did it all go wrong...? We could ask the Senior Partner - oh, wait, he shipped out to Hong Kong because that's where it's all happening for his firm. Sure, in some sectors more work is being taken in house and the market is low (hello shipping), but you have to ask questions of the management. Firms with equivalent focus don't seem to be suffering in this way. Taxi for Mr Heuvels?

Sad that Inces struggling, and shedding fee earners can't be attributed to a large three-way merger. Poor management or changing nature of key sectors? Together with postponing some future trainees, won't be surprised if there's a tipping point down the line.

Ashurst's Head of HR Claire Townshend told RollOnFriday that it had been “a difficult time for those directly affected by the changes and we aimed to deal with the process sensitively, openly and respectfully for those impacted and the money saved will mean that our equity partners can look forward to installing walk-in humidors in each of the holiday homes".