Just as the legal sector starts to regain confidence following the UK's Brexit vote, Bond Dickinson has announced it will freeze staff pay - and is blaming Brexit.
In an all-staff email leaked to RollOnFriday, Managing Partner Jonathan Blair writes that the decision to leave the EU "appears to be impacting on client activity and instructions". Making grim reading for the Newcastle firm's lawyers, he refers to a "mixed picture across the business" and a "dip in activity" compared to last year. During the 2015/16 period Bond Dickinson's revenues dropped 3% to £104 million, while profit per equity partner fell 3% to 275,000.
Blair continues that as a result of Brexit woes, management had "very reluctantly concluded" that it will need to defer salary reviews. He says the firm will "revisit this again in November", once it has pored over the half-year financials and calculated what, if anything, can be coughed up for staff.
In August an email from Trowers & Hamlins' Managing Partner leaked to RollOnFriday which included a stirring invocation to lawyers to "take every opportunity you can to reassure everyone that the UK is open for business". Blair strikes a less Churchillian tone, pointing out instead that "as you may have seen, a number of other firms have taken the same step as us". However, this week two of them revealed they would un-freeze pay and a third said it would move ahead with pay reviews in November.
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In an all-staff email leaked to RollOnFriday, Managing Partner Jonathan Blair writes that the decision to leave the EU "appears to be impacting on client activity and instructions". Making grim reading for the Newcastle firm's lawyers, he refers to a "mixed picture across the business" and a "dip in activity" compared to last year. During the 2015/16 period Bond Dickinson's revenues dropped 3% to £104 million, while profit per equity partner fell 3% to 275,000.
Blair continues that as a result of Brexit woes, management had "very reluctantly concluded" that it will need to defer salary reviews. He says the firm will "revisit this again in November", once it has pored over the half-year financials and calculated what, if anything, can be coughed up for staff.
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In August an email from Trowers & Hamlins' Managing Partner leaked to RollOnFriday which included a stirring invocation to lawyers to "take every opportunity you can to reassure everyone that the UK is open for business". Blair strikes a less Churchillian tone, pointing out instead that "as you may have seen, a number of other firms have taken the same step as us". However, this week two of them revealed they would un-freeze pay and a third said it would move ahead with pay reviews in November.
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