Nabarro slashes staff costs by £4.4m
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Nabarro has reduced its staff costs by almost 10 per cent over the past financial year, largely as a result of it slimming down its total salary bill.
The firm reduced total staff costs by £4.4m over the 2009-10 financial year, £4m of which was attributable to a reduction in total salaries, according to LLP filings with Companies House.
The firm reduced total non-partner staff by 7 per cent over the same period from 835 to 781.
Some of the drop in headcount was the result of redundancies that followed a drop in profitability and turnover during the 2009-09 financial year.
In July 2009 The Lawyer revealed that the firm would be launching a consultation with 19 members of staff, including 10 associates (8 July 2009 http://www.thelawyer.com/nabarro-in-new-redundancy-round-as-pep-drops-35-per-cent/1001309.article). This followed 22 redundancies made during the 2008-09 financial year.
In addition to cutting staff costs, Nabarro has slashed its corporate hospitality and marketing budgets and adopted a cautious approach to international expansion. Together these moves mean it has maintained a relatively high profit margin for its mid-market peer group at about a third of turnover, despite a 10 per cent decline in total revenue to £114m.
The accounts also reveal the extent of the firm’s conservative financing policy. Nabarro, headed by managing partner Nicole Paradise, had just £1m of bank loans and overdrafts on 30 April 2009. It also had £9m cash at bank and in hand, a reduction of £1.6m on the previous financial year. The overdraft facility is due for renewal in January 2011.
The firm’s management was unavailable for comment.
