Redundancies loom as Pinsent Masons launches cost-cutting review

Published on Saturday 20 June 2009 14:46

JOBS are under threat at Pinsent Masons' offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow after it became the latest law firm to launch a redundancy consultation.

The firm has also announced a package of cost-cutting measures to minimise the number of job losses, including a pay freeze for all staff and seconding more solicitors to other companies.

A spokeswoman said the consultation in Scotland was part of a UK-wide review, and that management hoped to keep job losses to a minimum. The firm employs 82 people in Glasgow and 44 at its Edinburgh office.

The spokeswoman said: "We continue, as we have done since the economic downturn, to do all we can to avoid large-scale job losses. This includes flexible working arrangements across the firm in order to reduce payroll costs and avoid the need to reduce positions. This is happening across the firm, including in Scotland.

"We are not able to give any estimates regarding redundancy numbers in Scotland but can confirm that they will be minimal."

The firm has also asked 25 per cent of the law graduates due to join its UK trainee scheme in September to defer their starting dates. According to the Office for National Statistics, 16,700 legal jobs were lost in the UK last year and that figure is expected to rise by a further 10,000 by 2010.

Lorna Jack, chief executive of the Law Society in Scotland, has warned that this recession is the bleakest economic situation that the profession north of the Border has ever experienced. Few firms have avoided redundancies or other cost-cutting measures.

Last month, Scottish legal giant McGrigors asked its staff, excluding partners, to take two weeks' unpaid holiday before the end of its financial year on 30 September. Partners accepted a 5 per cent reduction in their share of the firm's profits.