DWF is to make up to 37 lawyers and support staff redundant.

All the jobs will be lost from the fraud and motor teams in the firm's Liverpool office. DWF, which has not yet launched the consultation, has informed staff it is part of a restructuring.

Managing Partner Andrew Leaitherland blamed Legal Aid reforms, which he said meant firms specialising in insurance "are experiencing a decline in motor fraud litigation instructions". Whiplash, faked or real, isn't what it used to be. In January Keoghs put 41 jobs in its personal injury team at risk of redundancy, last year Lyons Davidson slashed 80 PI roles and in November Walker Morris shuttered its PI arm after the strategy of renaming it Distinctly Legal and going "direct to market" (cold calling) failed to reverse its fortunes.

   
There's only one way things could get worse for PI lawyers

The firm has been streamlining after buying up struggling PI rivals: in January it placed 21 finance staff who operated their legacy firms' IT systems in a redundancy consultation. Leaitherland said fewer support staff were needed because DWF has "been able to improve [its] efficiency through centralising activities and investment in IT".

Leaitherland also said the firm would try to find alternative roles for those affected or, if that proves impossible, provide CV and interview training to help them secure a job elsewhere. Even so, it will be a bitter pill for the Liverpool office to swallow. Revenues at the firm are soaring and, as one insider noted, DWF has just announced that its 305-strong London team are being moved to "plush" new offices at the Walkie Talkie tower (which, in a case of too little too late for the Liverpool's motor claims team, melted a car by reflecting the sun's rays onto it last year).
Tip Off ROF

Comments

Anonymous 31 May 14 14:17

Rapid growth. Ambitions to be a top 20 player. Growth that is not organic. Less work coming in. Client ambivalence . A fair amount of debt. Fancy new offices. All sounds familiar.

Anonymous 01 June 14 12:25

Anonymous at 13:17 looks like an insurance competitor- naughty! I don't work in insurance and have no affinity to DWF ( quite the opposite they are a corporate competitor) but the debt for size of firm looks low. I just read an article in The Lawyer. Fancy new office to service commercial market- actually consolidating 2 offices into 1 it seems. 2500 staff but less than 40 redundancies in a specific area, looks like its time to get real here - others have just done the same because of changes in this market. I'd guess post the legal aid act changes, some insurers are deciding to settle off the claims because they perceive it as being cheaper with the low fees? I'd suggest those insurance firms where a large proportion of their work is low value motor stuff are the ones that will suffer. As far as I know of them, DWF are not that and half their turnover is not even insurance based.

Anonymous 02 June 14 10:06

anonymous user above - clearly your figures are wrong. More than 50% of turnover is insurance based.

Anonymous 03 June 14 07:34

According to last years' annual review document on their website, less than 50% was insurance £88m- and their corporate side has grown since then. They also seem to be involved as a percentage in less of the low value stuff compared to their competitors. Seems this market is being affected by insurers deciding its cheaper to pay fraudulent claims given low portal fees ?(Beachcroft announcement another- how many more on the way?)