Lawrence Graham departures continue as 16 made redundant

The firm confirmed today that it has made eight lawyers and eight central service staff redundant. The lawyers are understood to be fee-earners, but not partners.

Management declined to comment beyond confirming the numbers that had been cut.

It followed the launch of discussions to cut up to 18 people last month (9 November 2012). At the time, managing partner Hugh Maule described the action as a “prudent” attempt to align its resources in a “difficult market”.

He said that while reducing the headcount in some areas of the business, the firm was continuing to “invest strategically” towards international and domestic growth.

The news of 16 redundancies comes after energy and natural resources head Tom Nicholls left for Stephenson Harwood (6 December 2012). Nicholls was one of the firm’s top AIM specialists, focusing on IPOs and secondary issues, as well as M&A, and helped put LG among the City’s leaders in that sphere.

LG suffered a turnover drop in 2011/12 of five per cent from £57.3m to £54.2m and average profit per equity partner slump from £412,000 to £303,000. It came after issues over property costs at its expensive More London offices impacted on profits (25 July 2012).

The cuts come amid a spate of redundancies across the market. On Friday, Pinsent Masons announced that it had axed a further 15 support staff in its second round of job cuts this year. A spokesman confirmed there were 13 voluntary and two compulsory redundancies in the finance and knowledge management teams (7 December 2012).