In the latest round of law firm redundancies, and despite the improving economic conditions, Keoghs has announced that 41 jobs are at risk.

All the redundancies will be in the firm's fraud division. Most are in the Coventry office and both fee earners (including four partners) and support staff are to be hit.  Keoghs has put 41 people at risk of redundancy.

The firm blamed the redundancies on last year's reforms for personal injury claims. A spokesman said “The post-reforms market environment has yet to stabilise, but it is clear that insurers’ ongoing counter-fraud requirements are going to be significantly different to what they were 12 to 18 months ago". However sources at the firm lay the blame squarely on poor management. Which will now be bracing itself for open anarchy, if the dirty protests carried out at the firm previously are anything to go by.

  The only Keoghs that 41 unfortunate staff will be visiting


Only recently Keoghs was making a big song and dance about opening an office in Manchester and poaching a load of Clyde & Co lawyers to run it. Some of those lawyers are now being shown the door. One slightly bitter insider, who is also at risk of redundancy, said that "those of us in Horwich, who were paid half what was paid to those in Manchester despite the Manchester lot scrounging around taking our work, are at least able to laugh at that".
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Comments

Anonymous 24 January 14 09:09

I feel for anyone at risk of redundancy or actually made redundant. Sad that the "insider" quoted above finds anything to laugh at.

Anonymous 24 January 14 09:31

I used to work there. I take no joy in this, but would point out that the senior partner, or CEO or whatever he calls himself, clearly styles himself on Steve Jobs, so our annual 'payrise presentation' involved a half hour slide show about how profits were up 30%... but we're only getting a 0.5% raise. Awful, awful place.

Roll On Friday 24 January 14 10:38

So where did the picture of the pub come from. I wish Keoghs office was like that... ha

Anonymous 24 January 14 13:36

The dirty protests are nothing to do with morale, they are a natural reaction to the Jackson reforms/Mitchell case where spend the entire working day touching cloth.

Anonymous 24 January 14 13:44

The CEO always reminded me of Christopher Reeve (as Clark Kent not Superman). It was probably the glasses and slightly nerdy hairstyle. And his ability to shoot laser beams from his eyes.

Anonymous 24 January 14 15:48

@anonymous 15.36: if you mean how do you pronounce "Keoghs"... it's Kee-yoes, assopposed to Kay-yogs

Anonymous 24 January 14 15:50

Those made redundant should apply for a job at their neighbours firm. They're recruiting 300 new staff

Anonymous 25 January 14 08:46

From someone who works in a fraud department (not Keoghs) I can confirm that fraud is absolutely rife. If you do not work in this area, you would be shocked to spend a week doing this work. Have the instructions gone down post Jackson? Only slightly. Is there less fraud? Possibly only slightly- most of it is orchestrated by the CMCs and dubious credit hire companies etc. I would not want to speculate why Keoghs have resorted to this.

Anonymous 28 January 14 16:30

Are Keoghs seen as over resourced in this area by their insurer clients and thus can afford to lay off so many staff? I don't know. However, if you look at the portal figures just released in 2011 there were 774k new CNFs. This rose to 833k in 2012 and it was 822k in 2013. The overall trend is levelling out rather than falling off a cliff. Are Keoghs saying that it is simply the case that the fraud has gone away, or are they saying that the insurers are simply paying more fraudulent claims? Alternatively, post Jackson is it the case that insurers have suddenly beefed up their fraud departments and started successfully repudiating a lot of these claims? It must be one of the three musn't it, based on Keoghs statement?

Anonymous 30 January 14 21:40

Or... they had a load of private equity funding, which they used to raid other firms for senior staff, offering high wages, in anticipation the work would follow. Except the work didn't follow. And the private equity investors are now expecting some return. It's no coincidence two of the recent departures were two of the recent expensive hires.

Anonymous 01 February 14 13:04

They won't be the first or last defendant insurance practice to make people redundant. Sad that some people find it amusing when people loose their jobs.