Posted: Friday, 27 February 2009 @ 18:59
There’s hardly a day goes by without a further announcement of solicitors being made redundant or being forced to accept a drop in salary. Those worst affected are the more senior solicitors, as solicitors’ firms push more trainees and newly-qualified lawyers forward to handle the day-to-day casework that more experienced lawyers used to do. In recent weeks, we are also hearing of partners being made redundant, which means that employment protection legislation can be side-stepped.
In my opinion, whilst this tends to help maintain partner profits for those remaining, it does not feed through into clients paying less, and certainly does not leave clients with the confidence that their work is being handled by fully experienced lawyers.
It’s not just solicitors who are suffering: all professionals are being hit, especially those whose work was based on the housing sector.
This is the first recession where professionals and white-collar workers are being hit harder than blue-collar workers. According to unemployment statistics, in the year up to the end of January 2009, of those signing on as unemployed,
- lawyers increased by 206%;
- architects and town planners increased by 389%;
- whilst factory workers increased by only 82%.
The good news, as far as we are concerned, is that our way of working has proved resilient and we are one of the few firms actively recruiting solicitors, especially in the areas of litigation, commercial law and employment law. And we are particularly interested in senior lawyers, the very same group that many firms are letting go.
If you are a senior solicitor, visit our solicitor vacancies page to see whether you would like to apply to join our team.
Gary Cousins, Business Solicitor
For free advice on this topic please call us on 0845 003 5639.
Blog by Gary Pascual
Gary has been providing legal advice to shareholders, directors and business owners for over 25 years. Specialising in dispute resolution Gary is based in Birmingham with clients throughout the UK and overseas.
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