Slater and Gordon has confirmed it is in the process of strategically reviewing its “business legal services” operations in the UK, a process which may lead to “dozens” of its lawyers being shown the door.
The revelation of the strategic review commencing comes from
Roll On Friday, which on Friday also said that an unnamed source had divulged that a large group of Slater and Gordon’s lawyers in the UK may soon be made redundant.
The publication said that the hedge fund owners of Slater and Gordon, which bought the firm’s debts
sold by banks earlier this year at a massive loss, will sell what’s left of the firm’s business legal services.
The firm’s website lists 42 lawyers in the business legal services team, which advises on employment, disputes, professional conduct issues, commercial property and regulatory compliance and defence matters.
A spokesperson said that the firm is “looking at the best way forward for our business legal services team.” The same spokesperson did not deny that one of the options was to make the team redundant.
Slater and Gordon is
still reeling from the fallout of its disastrous $1.3bn acquisition UK insurance company Quindell’s professional services arm in early 2015. It later wrote off most of that business, posting in fiscal 2016
the largest loss ever suffered by any law firm in the world. That fiscal year, the firm
cut 640 jobs in the UK.
In June, Slater and Gordon
served its billion-dollar claim against The Watchstone Group, the remnant of what was once Quindell.
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