Newcastle’s Muckle in redundancy talks

Newcastle firm Muckle has entered redundancy talks with up to 20 of its staff.

The affected staff members are understood to include business support employees and some fee-earners, mostly across the commercial group and the property services groups.

Muckle senior partner Hugh Welch said in a statement: “Muckle has presented a proposal to employees today to make a small number of people redundant due to the impact of the credit crunch and the ongoing uncertainty in the banking and property markets.”

The firm blamed the “the difficult market conditions that all businesses are experiencing” for the job cuts.

Corporate commercial and commercial property make up around a third each of the firm’s revenue.

As reported by The Lawyer this week (28 July), Muckle’s turnover for the 2007-08 financial year has increased by only to 3 per cent to £9.7m.

The muted growth will make the firm’s five-year target grow from its current size of around 70 fee-earners to 120 with a commensurate rise in turnover more difficult to achieve.