Hogan Lovells is shedding 43 staff roles in the United States and Mexico as part of a business services restructuring.
The cuts, announced Friday, amount to 4% of the firms business services workforce in the Americas. The firm’s restructuring will also include a voluntary redundancy program for business services and secretarial staff in the U.K.
“We have performed well over the past few months and ahead of where we were this time last year in terms of revenues and we have also done well in ensuring that our discretionary costs have been kept to a minimum,” CEO Miguel Zaldivar said in a statement. “However, we see continuing uncertainties in the market for 2021 and need to be well-positioned to weather what could be a more challenging period.”
The firm did not set any targets for the number of positions it aims to eliminate through voluntary exits in the U.K. And it added that it has no plans for compulsory redundancies in that market or for additional cuts in the Americas in 2020.
“Even without the pandemic we would have been making some changes to the structure of our business services teams as part of our continuing program of ensuring the shape of our business is right for the needs of our clients,” Zaldivar added.
The firm instituted a series of austerity measures at the start of June, cutting compensation for equity and nonequity partners, counsel and associates, along with specialists and knowledge lawyers.
In early September, owing to “solid performance” over the summer, Hogan Lovells reversed the cuts for nonpartners and retroactively restored the lost pay.
But other measures remain in place. Equity partners will continue to see reduced draws and bonus payments through the end of the year, while the compensation reduction for nonequity partners and senior counsel are to be reviewed later in the year.
“We appreciate that these are difficult times and these reductions are in no way a reflection on the skills and qualities of the people involved,” Zaldivar said. “These are not easy decisions to take–those who are leaving us are our friends as well as our colleagues and they leave us with our thanks and support.”
