Slater and Gordon cut 70 jobs from Australia and a whopping 640 jobs in the UK in its worst year ever.
The revelation comes from the firm’s recently-published
annual report to shareholders which revealed it had 1,330 employees in 61 locations in Australia and 3,310 people in 25 locations in the UK by the end of the most recent fiscal year.
By contrast, the firm employed 1,400 people in 67 locations across Australia and 3,950 people in 28 locations in the UK in the previous fiscal year, according to its
2015 shareholders report.
UPDATE: A Slater and Gordon spokesperson told
Australasian Lawyer that the workforce decrease in Australia is due to natural attrition and operational changes.
"In Australia, as is the case with all businesses, employee numbers fluctuate year to year. In Australia, the small change was due to natural attrition and some minor operational changes. We are also continuing to hire people with significant expertise in growing parts of our business," the spokesperson said.
"In terms of offices, as we have progressed integration with acquired firms we have consolidated office space where appropriate. For example, we moved three CBD offices in Brisbane and two in Perth into the one office space in each city."
Meanwhile, the law firm noted that it is straightforward about it's difficulties and its plan to recover in the UK.
"In the UK, we have been open about our performance improvement plan which did include streamlining our business. Where possible, we looked for ways to minimise the impact to employees; an emphasis of the performance improvement programme was removing duplication that we had across the businesses in the UK," the spokesperson said,
"The changes were all focussed on giving our clients in the UK a clear offering across our main business areas of Fast Track, Serious and Specialised Law and General Law. At the same time, we have been hiring significant in talent for growing areas of our business across General Law in our family team, wills and business legal services as well as our serious and specialised personal injury teams."
Slater and Gordon is amid a restructure. The Australia-headquartered law firm announced in August that
its board will undergo a reshuffle.
For the last full fiscal year, the law firm posted a $1.02b loss which includes $879.5m in non-cash goodwill impairment for its failed Quindell business.
Slater and Gordon revealed last month that
it plans to sue the Watchstone Group, the remnant of the UK company Quindell which it paid $1.3b in 2015 to acquire its professional services division.
The law firm plans to sue to recover £50m ($86.5m) set aside in the sale’s agreement for warranty claims.
Slater & Gordon also recently
ceased its conveyancing business in Australia.
From a high of $8 per share last year on the ASX, the law firm closed last week at just below 40 cents per share.
