Eversheds suffers marketing departures

NATIONAL firm Eversheds has lost five of its senior marketing people in the past 18 months amid claims that some partners have vetoed promotional plans and presented marketing ideas as their own.

But the firm's national managing partner, Peter Cole, denies the allegations, saying changes in the marketing department have come as a result of the firm's national revamp.

"Eversheds has been a success by any standard. That success has changed our approach to marketing and inevitably some people, particularly in our regional offices, have been left behind by the pace of change," says Cole.

The most recent to resign is national marketing director Richard Baker, who will leave in January to join Hammond Suddards. He joins Sarah Ross (marketing manager in Birmingham), Deborah Ascott-Jones (director of marketing in Leeds), David Rough (national marketing coordinator) and Sue Pope (head of marketing in Cardiff) in leaving the firm.

One former employee says the five resigned because the marketing team was dissatisfied with management interference in promotional activities.

"Many of the marketing solutions or initiatives put to Eversheds, either nationally or regionally, were often either ignored or reconstituted as a partner's idea," says the employee.

"In a creative environment where there is little, if any recognition, it is extremely demotivating to have this happen to you time and time again."

But Baker says his move was prompted by "broader responsibilities". "Building a national brand for Eversheds during the past three years has been one of the most complex and exciting legal marketing jobs."

The firm, in merger talks with Jaques & Lewis, is expected to drop its individual regional titles by May.