Eversheds to outsource UK-wide secretarial jobs
Eversheds will shed up to 95 secretarial staff as the firm prepares to outsource its documentation processes with outsourcing company Exigent.
Lee Ranson
The firm is in the process of rolling out documentation to an offshore site after completing a pilot with Exigent in its Cambridge office.
Earlier this year The Lawyer reported that the firm piloted the outsourcing scheme in its Cambridge office, with 10 secretaries being put on gardening leave between May and July (25 May 2009). It is understood that the 10 employees are still on gardening leave.
Since the end of the pilot Eversheds has looked at ways of rolling out the outsourcing scheme across its offices. The firm has decided that it requires one secretary for every four fee-earners with the rest of its needs being met by Exigent. Currently there is one secretary for every 3.4 fee-earners.
Eversheds managing partner Lee Ranson said: “The pilot was designed for us to evaluate how outsourcing works on the ground. We then went back to the business to discuss exactly how it would work across the firm. It will affect offices differently.”
The firm is announcing the initiative to its staff today and will begin rolling it out across its UK offices between now and Christmas.
Ranson said: “This is something that was taken up in other professions a long time ago. The legal profession is just starting to look at this now.”
Earlier today TheLawyer.com reported that 22 associates from Eversheds’ real estate team are in redundancy consultation (10 September 2009).
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Readers' comments (25)
Anonymous | 12-Sep-2009 2:22 pm
Exporting jobs in a recession between now and Christmas to a country without a minimum wage and in doing so circumventing UK employment law.Is this really the future with mere fee earners next in line?
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Anonymous | 13-Sep-2009 9:56 am
I am one of the secretaries at Eversheds who has been notified of redundancy this week. I was told we are able to attend interviews but what I didn't know was that you have to take unpaid leave or holiday!
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Anonymous | 14-Sep-2009 3:39 am
Very interested, can somebody post the website address of Exigent as it seems not easy to find. Thanks.
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Anonymous | 14-Sep-2009 3:09 pm
If you would like to contact Exigent directly, please contact nstott@exigent-global.com
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Anonymous | 14-Sep-2009 3:36 pm
Their website is www.exigent-global.com.
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Anonymous | 15-Sep-2009 5:07 pm
they've got be realistic. We've all got to be realistic. exactly the same issues that the whole profession is facing. I suspect they're just being more open about it than most.
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Stephen Wood, Northamptonshire | 16-Sep-2009 9:51 am
An existing ratio of 3.4 fee-earners to 1 secretary seems very high. Is this common? I would assume that some fee-earners, perhaps in appropriate areas like uninsured loss and debt recovery will write their own letters, being helped by precedents. Surely it must be extremely difficult to have such a ratio in many areas of practice?
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Anonymous | 16-Sep-2009 4:05 pm
I wish !!! A ratio of 3.4 fee earners would be a breeze. Following a round of redundancies I now work for 6 full time fee earners and in my firm, which isn't a small one, this isn't unusual.
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Anonymous | 16-Sep-2009 4:18 pm
Speaking as a legal secretary for the past 17 years will Exigent do the following:
Amend the same document about 10 times because the lawyer can't make up his mind what to put.
Find out what time the dry cleaners take last orders.
Answer all their calls because they have put it on divert because they are avoiding one of their clients.
Lie to their wife that they are in an important meeting when really they are on a boozy lunch.
Put through their expenses without questioning why they don't have any receipts for most of the things they are claiming for.
Submit their time sheets and make up any missing hours so they qualify for their PEP.
Book some irrelevant CPD course because it is September and they are in a panic because they haven't got enough CPD points.
1 year after you have left get the blame for anything that has gone wrong, or any file/document that is missing because you were "useless".
I rest my case.
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Anonymous | 17-Sep-2009 5:37 am
This issue is bloody arrogant.
When the joy of low price is long forgotten the bitterness of poor quality still remains.
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