Report this comment to a moderator

Lincolnshire's Wilkin Chapman boosts revenues with local merger

"That equates to 23 staff for every £1m of turnover." You're quite right, that is an absurd ratio. It either means that there are far too many non fee-earning staff or that the fee-earners are hopelessly inefficient. I suspect that will be one of the main reasons for the merger. Mid-sized firms like this are in the worst position of all - not prestigious enough to get big ticket profitable work, but not small enough to make decent money out of niche work. They have to take on a lot of routine crap just to keep the shekels rolling in and pay the wages. And the location is hardly going to attract heavyweight commercial work - I can't imagine that many plc directors would want to reveal that their company solicitors are trading from such exotic locations as Grimsby and Cleethorpes! Firms like this are the most susceptible to commoditisation of legal work and you can bet that the current headcount will be slashed in an attempt to get competitive. Having 12 offices in obscure locations is also not viable any more - this massively increases overheads as a proportion of fee-income. Unfortunately I would expect half of those small offices to be closed and I wouldn't be surprised if 25% or more of those staff will soon be looking for new jobs.

23-Jan-2010

3:53 pm