Mayer Brown launches redundancy round for support staff

Readers' comments (11)

• lydia | 21-Sep-2012 2:47 pm

  Tough times. Here's hoping things improve soon.

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• Captain | 21-Sep-2012 3:22 pm

  The Titanic listing another degree towards sinking.

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• Anon | 21-Sep-2012 4:41 pm

  LOTS now going at many firms by "stealth".
  
  The interesting thing is that the economy hasn't even gone off the cliff edge yet. It's inching ever closer but living standards/output have yet to adjust to reflect the collapse in competitiveness vis a vis China and the bursting of the debt bubble.

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• Anonymous | 21-Sep-2012 5:55 pm

  The only surprising thing about this announcement is that the numbers are so low. It is common knowledge that there are more support staff than lawyers in the London office, partly because there are so few lawyers left after the last few years...

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• Anonymous | 22-Sep-2012 10:17 am

  Again?

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• Anonymous | 24-Sep-2012 2:09 pm

  Chicago management know they have a 30 partner, 100 associate offering at best in London. Getting there will be hard but worth it in the end. There are simply too many partners without enough business, and loaded with excessive overhead the profit margin is too thin to reward those who do. Game on, get fit or die.

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• Sir Bernard | 25-Sep-2012 3:30 pm

  Potentially cutting less than 20 staff and the walls are falling in? Hardly a Dewey makes. MB has over 500 employees in London. Not sure there are many London firms which if they haven't cut support, aren't thinking about it, if only to get rid of some fat. Fact is that MB London is higlhly profitable (look at the last set of accounts), has great panel positions and clients, and is part of a global firm with no debt. Many others would love to be in that position.

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• Anonymous | 27-Sep-2012 9:42 am

  "MB London is higlhly (sic) profitable". Really?!

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• Apolinaire | 28-Sep-2012 7:11 pm

  The staff is not the problem. The problem is at the top, where the fat is. Partners should fly economy class, use frequent flier miles for business trips instead of family vacations, pay for their private cell phone charges and lunches and stay in 3-star hotels instead of 5-star hotels, pack their own toothbrush, just to mention a few cuts of amenities. One good advice coming from a former staff person who handled attorney billings, firms should eliminate the CLIENT DEVELOPMENT account on their balance sheets.

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• Associate Insider | 1-Oct-2012 6:14 pm

  Associates are leaving in their droves and morale is at the bottom - the worst I've ever known in my time here. Everyone is looking for an out if they haven't already left, and every day I keep hearing about more associates that have left very quickly (stealth redundancies?). There are even departments with more partners than associates! The firm is certainly not the next Dewey, but it is stumbling.

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