RollOnFriday has been told that Shakespeares has informed an unconfirmed number of staff that they must accept massive pay cuts.
Staff across the firm have already been placed in a redundancy consultation with 19 jobs expected to go by the end of the month. But insiders say that many employees, including fee-earners, have also undergone salary reviews in which they were told they had to accept large pay cuts. Some staff in the costs department have seen their pay drop by nearly £10,000.
All six of the secretaries in Shakespeares' Birmigham insurance department are currently up for redundancy, and RollOnFriday has been told that is because none of them accepted whopping pay slashes. However a spokesman for the firm said it was simply that they had not accepted "alternative roles".
However, the partners at least have a contingency plan in place, as the ex-Managing Partner's daughter has been hired on a temporary contract to do the filing. A spokesman for Shakespeares said "We don’t discriminate against family members".
Shakespeares isn't the only firm whose support staff are suffering. BLP and Hill Dickinson made non-fee-earner redundancies over the summer, as did Taylor Wessing. Others, like Ashurst in June, not only chopped roles but shifted support staff functions to cheaper parts of the world (Glasgow), following the lead of firms like Allen & Overy which opened a low-cost base in Belfast, where even a series of dirty protests couldn't change management minds. As partners hunt for savings and as firms duplicate roles by merging (or, almost as likely, by going bust and getting bought), support staff can probably expect grim times to continue.
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Staff across the firm have already been placed in a redundancy consultation with 19 jobs expected to go by the end of the month. But insiders say that many employees, including fee-earners, have also undergone salary reviews in which they were told they had to accept large pay cuts. Some staff in the costs department have seen their pay drop by nearly £10,000.
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How it works: a Shakespeares salary review |
All six of the secretaries in Shakespeares' Birmigham insurance department are currently up for redundancy, and RollOnFriday has been told that is because none of them accepted whopping pay slashes. However a spokesman for the firm said it was simply that they had not accepted "alternative roles".
However, the partners at least have a contingency plan in place, as the ex-Managing Partner's daughter has been hired on a temporary contract to do the filing. A spokesman for Shakespeares said "We don’t discriminate against family members".
Shakespeares isn't the only firm whose support staff are suffering. BLP and Hill Dickinson made non-fee-earner redundancies over the summer, as did Taylor Wessing. Others, like Ashurst in June, not only chopped roles but shifted support staff functions to cheaper parts of the world (Glasgow), following the lead of firms like Allen & Overy which opened a low-cost base in Belfast, where even a series of dirty protests couldn't change management minds. As partners hunt for savings and as firms duplicate roles by merging (or, almost as likely, by going bust and getting bought), support staff can probably expect grim times to continue.
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The Lawyers in that firm can't think or do things for themselves