Clarke Willmott outsources typing, broadens secretarial role
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Clarke Willmott is to pilot an outsourcing programme in its Birmingham office with the aim of rolling it out across its UK network.
The firm will send its typing work to outsourcing company Exigent’s South African base. In the UK Clarke Willmott will also implement a secretarial training scheme to enable the position to encompass a broader range of skills.
Managing partner David Sedgwick said the firm had made a number of secretaries redundant in recent months and that consequently “the secretaries we’ve got are very good”.
He explained: “We want to improve their skills and make them more aligned with the fee-earners.
There will be no more secretarial redundancies.”
Initially the scheme will be used in Birmingham, but if successful it will be rolled out to the firm’s bases in Bristol, Southampton, Taunton and London.
Sedgwick said it would be at least a year before the firm could assess how much money it had saved from the outsourcing, but added that it was not chiefly a cost-saving exercise.
Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 17-Oct-2009 3:12 pm
Usual twaddle from a managing partner. This is happening a lot - highly paid administrative roles within a firm are made redundant and then the secretaries are expected to take on these roles for nothing. And if cost-saving is not the chief reason for out-sourcing the typing what is? You are right David - the secretaries you have left probably are very good - and far too bright to be taken in by your hogwash!
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Anonymous | 22-Oct-2009 1:17 pm
Well said anonymous.
If you can get a badly paid secretary to do the work of an overpaid lawyer on top of all their other duties, then the bigger share the partners will take home, eh Mr Sedgwick?
Secretaries always bear the brunt when it comes to cost cuts. Contrary to popular belief, it is a skilled job that not everyone is good at (ask any lawyer who has had a bad secretary), yet they are treated as disposable.
When it comes to "cost-saving" measures, I'd like to see how much of a cut the senior lawyers and partners are taking. I suspect not much.
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