Law firm to axe 75 jobs as work withers

Mar 24 2009 by Chris Knox, The Journal

THE North East's legal sector has suffered another blow as Newcastle firm Watson Burton says it is looking at cutting about 75 staff.

The firm, which employs about 320 people in the region, said it was being forced to take robust action to secure the short-term future of the business.

The cuts will undo four years of growth in its workforce, which would be left at around the 200 mark, and will affect staff at its offices in Newcastle, Leeds and London.

The firm had already made 10 redundant at the end of last year and said at the time it was “confident” there would be no further job losses.

There is no indication of how many jobs will be lost in Newcastle or how the cuts will be split among its backroom staff and fee-earning solicitors, of whom there are about 80.

It said every attempt was being made to redeploy staff within the industry and that all alternative options to redundancy were being explored.

The firm, which said it was not planning to close any offices, highlighted property and some of its corporate markets as areas that had seen a significant drop in cases. It expected income to be down on last year as a result.