A&O boss vows to limit job cuts as firm transfers support function to Belfast
Allen & Overy (A&O) managing partner Wim Dejonghe has pledged to limit the number of redundancies that are likely to come about as a result of the firm’s decision to transfer up to 180 support staff to Belfast.
Wim Dejonghe
Dejonghe added that cutting costs was not the main driver behind the move to open up twin support and legal services operations in the Northern Irish capital, despite estimated savings of £10m over the first five years.
“I think it’s unrealistic to think that all people will relocate,” Dejonghe told The Lawyer.
He added: “I hope to limit the number of redundancies as much as possible. Obviously we do offer the opportunity [to relocate] and we’ll incentivise people to do that.”
A consultation process with staff likely to be affected will begin shortly, with details of any relocation packages yet to be worked out.
Dejonghe also defended the decision to move some support functions away from A&O’s London base, despite the projected savings.
“If the costs were the driver then we could’ve done something else, but we never wanted to compromise on quality,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons we went for onshoring not offshoring and why we’re launching as an A&O office. We weren’t going to take any risks with quality.
“There’s a lot of investment involved so the cost saving will only be £10m in total over the first five years.”
As part of the project A&O will initially transfer 180 members of support staff to Belfast to deliver IT, HR, finance, business services and library functions from a single site. The legal services centre will take on some routine or less complex legal work.
As many as 250 support roles could be based in the city by 2014, with total headcount including fee-earners potentially reaching 300.
The decision to open up in Belfast mirrors a move made by Herbert Smith last year when the firm opened a support office to service its dispute resolution practice (24 November 2010).
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Readers' comments (61)
Anonymous | 4-Feb-2011 12:17 pm
@Anonymous at 6:20 and others
Only £2.5m? As a free market economist you should stay all in favour. Every penny of that will be recouped promptly in tax, employment (reduced benefits etc) and other investments. Everywhere that A&O looked will have offered them incentives to go there. That's peanuts to keep these jobs in the UK and the move from A&O will attract plenty of other interest too. As the government turn off the tap of public funding to NI they desperately have to attract private employers and this fits the bill rather well, I'd say.
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Norn Irn and proud of it | 4-Feb-2011 12:26 pm
Great move A&O - nice bit of business in the January transfer window (almost). Skin the taxpayer for £2.5m, dump most fo your London support staff and hire cheaper and better staff at NI rates. Nice one - I'm deadly serious, I'm Northern Irish and am very supportive of the efforts of Invest NI to spearhead outsourcing to the Province.
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2011 1:06 pm
"Only £2.5m? As a free market economist you should stay all in favour. Every penny of that will be recouped promptly in tax, employment (reduced benefits etc) and other investments"
Presumably it simply replaces the unemployed people in Belfast with unemployed people in London. And due to the lower wages in NI, the tax revenue from such people will be lower.....
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2011 1:33 pm
Presumably so . . . but not as low as UK tax receipts for jobs in Budapest or Manila. Free market economics works regionally as well as nationally.
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2011 2:02 pm
A&O already outsource to India and Manilla and we all know what a superb service they have provided so hopefully Belfast will be equally successful!!
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2011 2:45 pm
If memory serves, the recently retired Senior Partner was an Ulsterman. His accent didn't hold him back....
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2011 2:52 pm
How can you hope to limit redundancies when you are giving your valued (lol) support services Hobson's choice. A&O is fully aware that they are forcing people out of their jobs and then has the gall to hide this fact behind the statement that they are creating 250+ new jobs in Belfast - at the cost of your London staff. As if making a billion pounds wasn't already sufficient, A&O wants to relocate to Belfast to save money, treating their support staff disgracefully in the procss. How about the 450+ partners don't take seven figure salaries to help reduce client fees...don't suppose that was an option.
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Miss Moneypenny | 4-Feb-2011 3:30 pm
As one of the old girls of the firm, working my way up from the typing pool of Cheapside to the not so heady heights of a PA to an every increasing workload of partners I am shocked. Have just heard that in future if I want to arrange a conference, book meeting room or simply ask the switchboard to connect me to somewhere it will all be done in Belfast. Nothing against Northern Ireland but these girls and boys are always so helpful and cheery on the phone and know there stuff. They had a clear out last year and let the crown jewels go and just as a new team started to get to understand our needs as users they get replaced. Total disgrace. The switchboard/room bookings team are not the highest of paid staff but are the voice of our firm and we can treat them so badly. I feel physically sick to hear it. Managing Parter??? wish he would go manage something else. The old guard may be getting on but they knew their stuff - the bunch of over paid, ego inflated fee earners may make shed loads of money for the firm, but believe me they get handsomely rewarded - unlike the poor switchboard folks and us mere secretaries.... 28 years at A&O and thought I had walked into a different firm today. Tut tut bad form for such loyalty and dedication to the client. Oh well nothing we can do about it but guess I will have to go and polish one of many ego inflated 007's halos !!
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2011 6:11 pm
Almost thought this was a Halliwells' thread it had so many upset responses on it.
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Anonymous | 5-Feb-2011 0:07 am
to Miss Moneypenny - don't forget all the poor document production staff - the PA's won't be able to get their work done while they pop out to lunch, they won't have anyone to log on to their machines when they're stuck with a document and don't know what to do - oh wait a minute - phone Belfast LOL
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