Exclusive: Hill Dickinson places 39 at risk of redundancy

Hill Dickinson placed 39 lawyers and non-fee-earning staff into a redundancy consultation today.

All the jobs will be lost from HD's fraud division, specifically its counter fraud teams. The firm told RollOnFriday the cuts are being made "following a 15 % increase in instructions" for counter fraud over the last year. A reduction in jobs seems like a bizarro response to an increase in work, but apparently it's not: the firm said it was "restructuring and streamlining processes aligned to insurers’ ongoing counter fraud requirements".

The price of success, coming soon in HD

It's Hill Dickinson's second restructuring in as many years. In 2013 the firm made a £2.8 million cash call on partners, cut 14 of them and axed 69 other staff. At the time managing partner Peter Jackson prophesied that 2014 would be a "solid year". But while PEP and profit both rose a smidgen in 2013/14 (though revenue is flat - the wonders of a reduced wage bill), the rank and file are facing another dose of pain.

Head of Fraud Peter Oakes said: “It is regrettable that we will lose some colleagues from the group as a result of this restructure. We appreciate this is a difficult time and we will be providing as much support and guidance as possible. The counter fraud market is hugely dynamic and the restructure will give us an agile model with an emphasis on expertise aligned to the evolving counter fraud environment, the needs of our clients and the insurance market”.

Managing Partner Peter Jackson said, “We are always saddened to see colleagues depart, but the counter fraud market is changing rapidly. Generating efficiencies where possible enables us to invest throughout our business”.

Read more on Friday.

Comments

Shame he only works part-time!!! Redundancies are due at the top too if remaining staff are to have confidence

While it's management that made the bad decisions that led to this it's the staff who face the fallout.

and this just days within DAC Beachcroft finalising closure of their manchester fraud team. This is a sign of market place and of bad management at the top of these departments. At least Keoghs, DAC and DWF staff had a head start on any available jobs elsewhere, unlike those unlucky souls now at Hill Dickinson.

rtt

Its one of the most bizarre excuses for redundancies. I guess the fat cats are all losing sleep over how the industry has changed. They knew it was coming but did nothing to prepare for it. And for those who think, things will go full circle. i.e. insurers are now doing things for themselves and will eventually outsource to fraud law firms again. Its not going to happen, it may have happened in the past but we are in different times with different laws. the day of the fat cat fraud partners is over. My suggestion, diversify.. Its a real shame staff have to suffer for incompetent partners who failed to see the writing on the wall.

Complete and utter failure to react to the Jackson reforms. Carry on recruiting en masse despite the roll out of fixed fees, nobody will notice..!?

A defendant insurance firm which is struggling to retain its core business whilst failing to develop a credible commercial law business.
They need a merger.

For all the experts out there- what's actually (and somewhat unexpectedly) happened is that the insurers have decided its cheaper to pay the claims in the portal, so they are not really bothered about fighting fraudulent claims, just settling by the cheapest method possible. Never has there been a better time to be a fraudster- you'll likely get a pre med offer. The ABI says fraudulent claims are increasing. Whilst on the ground, staff are being instructed and targeted with keeping all the claims in the portal and just paying them off.

They were one of the nicest teams in there too - sad news. Management are incompetent and running the place into the ground. They'll lose their much-coveted Top 30 spot very soon, if they haven't already.