Olswang slashes benefits firm-wide, including bonus

Olswang has slashed a range of employee benefits including the end-of-year bonus in favour of appreciation such as “good feedback”.

Senior partner Mark Devereux said the firm has taken a review of expenditure as a result of the economic downturn, which he said “leaves nobody unaffected.”

In the past staff within the five practice groups went on an annual team-building weekends away with their respective teams, travelling to destinations from “Bath to Barcelona,” Devereux said, while staff across the firm also received a pay-out at Christmas as “more of a token than anything, a way of showing appreciation.”

Instead Olswang lawyers and staff will now receive “regular group feedback” and “keeping staff informed”.

Devereux said that the cutbacks “may not be popular, but they are sensible.”

He added: “I’d be surprised if there isn’t a law firm in London that isn’t renewing expenditure, this is hardly revolutionary.”

Turnover was up by just under 12 per cent at Olswang this year, as reported by The Lawyer (23 May), but average profit per equity partner dropped by 3 per cent - the first fall since the dot com crash of 2002.