You soon get used to the inflationary nature of gossip in the City. So when early claims began circulating that Linklaters was gearing up for substantial job cuts last week morphed into widespread predictions of a 10% cut at assistant level, the assumption was that the number would come in lower than billed.
After all, such a move would have been about as deep as we’ve seen from any major law firm in recent memory – let alone a top-tier practice that has been a robust performer in difficult recent markets. So learning today that Linklaters’ planned redundancies are set to reduce the firm’s UK fee earner ranks by between 14% and 17% is downright shocking. There isn’t really any recent precedent for a comparable practice slicing that deep. Clifford Chance’s (CC’s) announcement on 8 January that nearly one in 10 of its UK lawyers are set to go is in a different league. CC’s business, where revenues had fallen by 5%-7% in the first half of 2008-09, was plainly suffering more than Linklaters. While CC’s actions looked hard-headed, on balance they also appear a proportionate response to market conditions – a case that is harder to make for Linklaters.
