Herbert Smith cuts Dubai support jobs in bid to streamline office

News of the five job losses, all within the Dubai office’s IT and business services functions, comes shortly after the firm announced it was entering a redundancy consultation in London that could see up to 51 fee-earners and staff axed (30 April 2012).

In a statement, a spokesperson for Herbert Smith said: “It was a decision we took with regret, but one we needed to make to put our business services resources back in step with our fee-earner numbers.”

The spokesperson added that the number of fee-earners in Dubai had dropped through natural attrition, and that the firm was not “actively managing the number of fee-earners” there.

In August 2011, Herbert Smith relocated Middle East head Neil Brimson from Dubai to its new Doha office, along with a small number of associates (4 August 2011).

At the end of April 2012 Herbert Smith announced that it would be cutting 51 jobs, or 3.2 per cent of the total workforce, in its London office. Corporate was expected to be the hardest hit, losing 23 fee-earners, while five fee-earners were also expected to be asked to leave in real estate.