Finers and Howard Kennedy draw up new merger timetable
The delayed merger between London firms Finers Stephens Innocent (FSI) and Howard Kennedy will now go live on 1 February.
Mark Dembovsky
Delays in the process have seen the original ambitious date of 1 November pass without any official announcement.
FSI managing partner Paul Millett said the members’ agreement has been finalised this week and is being sent out for consultation among all partners. He added that he does not expect any issues as the two firms look to align their businesses.
Staff have been told that the firms are aiming for the start of February 2013 to complete the £45m tie-up.
Millett said: “There remains a huge amount to do, but I’ve just made presentations to staff to say that this is the date we’re aiming for.”
Howard Kennedy CEO Mark Dembovsky has told The Lawyer that there will be no large scale reduction of fee-earners and that delays to the merger process have come from issues with “back office alignment”, rather than people (5 November 2012).
The two firms entered into talks in February this year. Should the deal complete within 12 months, the enlarged firm would have approximately 88 partners and 125 fee-earners.
Management of the two firms and those close to the merger have moved to quash concerns that an “uneasiness” among some members of both firms was behind the hold-up.
As part of the merger of the West End outfits into Howard Kennedy FSI, the firms’ cost bases will be looked at, but Dembovsky has been keen to stress that there is “no sense of a need to move people on”.
Millett added: “We’re not doing this to make redundancies.”
Readers' comments (4)
Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 9:37 pm
The statement that there will be no reductions in work staff or redundancies is complete nonsense. Howard Kennedy are renowned for employing staff on rolling fixed term contracts with a view to running rough shod over their employment rights and getting rid of them at will.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 20-Nov-2012 3:34 pm
The funny thing is that Finers have a much more stream-lined firm than Howard Kennedy. The perception that Howard Kennedy ride rough shod is simply untrue. In reality, the firm should have had a tougher stance on fee earner performance which in some cases has not been good enough. I suspect that there will be some redundancies upon merger and from a commercial view-point, I'd be worried if I was a partner and there wasn't any.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Jeff | 20-Nov-2012 9:14 pm
The previous commentator is missing the point made earlier. The temporary employment status of many HK employees is not related to performance, in fact the opposite in most cases. Their contract status is aimed purely at avoiding subsequent "non-renewals" as being termed as "redundancies" following merger (should it ever happen) which HK and Finers realise is a negative PR.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 21-Nov-2012 6:28 pm
re the previous comment, I'm not sure where you are getting your information from. there are a handful of fixed term contracts at hk in relation to property/plot sales work where the work really is project based. it would not be prudent to take on full time people for such roles. 93% of fee earners are full time.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment