It’s now mid May, and the weather is getting warmer. Everyone is making their last-ditch efforts to slim down for summer — even law firms. As you may have already heard, DLA Piper is planning to cut up to 200 jobs from its workforce, predominantly among business support professionals in the U.K.
Citing a “proposed number of redundancies,” the positions constitute 18 percent of the firm’s total U.K. business support staff of 1,100. The firm will decide how many jobs will be eliminated by the end of July, and the layoffs will likely take place between October 2016 and the end of 2017. According to a report in Big Law Business, the downsizing is expected to affect various support jobs, including those in IT, finance, HR, marketing, and business development, as well as some secretarial teams. The majority of these jobs will likely be moved to the firm’s back-office operations center in Warsaw. Andrew Darwin, DLA Piper’s chief operating officer, said it was a “difficult day.”
Here is Darwin’s statement on the impending layoffs. The “period of consultation” he refers to below may well be a race for the survival of the fittest to keep their jobs:
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The firm has grown rapidly over the past decade and many of our systems and processes reflect the history of the firm rather than its future. It is a key part of our strategy to modernize our business service functions in order to operate more effectively on a global basis and improve the quality, consistency and efficiency of the way we deliver our services to our clients.
Following a comprehensive review of the firm’s operations, and the successful pilot of a global shared services centre in Warsaw, we have begun a period of consultation in the UK that will consider the possible reduction in size of our IT, Finance, HR, Marketing & BD, and Secretarial teams. Until the consultation is completed, we will not be making any final decisions, and we will be actively supporting our people during this process.
This is a breakdown of where DLA Piper’s layoffs are expected to hit:
Birmingham – 12%
Northwest (Manchester & Liverpool) – 16%
Yorkshire (Leeds & Sheffield) – 44%
Edinburgh – 3%
London – 25%HR – 9%
Marketing – 10%
Finance – 32%
IT – 21%
Secretarial – 28%
According to a comment given by a firm spokesperson to the Am Law Daily, “DLA Piper’s U.S. operations would not be included in the restructuring.” According to our sources, however, this is an inaccurate statement. Although these are supposedly the firm’s first major cuts since 2014, people tell us that the firm has been consistently laying off a “very high number” of associates, counsel, and even partners — including John Altorelli, the onetime co-chair of the firm’s U.S. finance practice, who is also a former Dewey & LeBoeuf partner who was driven into bankruptcy — for the past four months. (Altorelli’s bio page on the DLA Piper website now reverts to a “Page Not Found.”) We have reached out to DLA Piper for comment, but have not yet received a response.
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We wish the lawyers and legal professionals at DLA Piper the best of luck while they seek new job opportunities in the legal industry and beyond.
If your firm or organization is closing its doors or reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Our vast network of tipsters is part of what makes Above the Law thrive — we’ll never ignore you. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477). Thank you!
DLA Piper to Cut Up to 200 U.K. Support Jobs [Big Law Business]
A ‘Difficult Day’ at DLA Piper as Firm Plots 200 Layoffs [Big Law Business]
Where DLA Piper’s Layoffs in the U.K. Are Expected to Hit [Big Law Business]
DLA Piper Says UK Layoffs Won’t Spread to US [Am Law Daily]
Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.