US firm Baker & McKenzie is to axe up to 85 staff in London, including between 20 and 30 lawyers, as part of a new redundancy consultation. The firm is also anticipating a pay freeze and scrapping its all-staff bonus.

Gary Senior, London managing partner, blamed the ‘exceptionally challenging’ economic climate when informing staff of the cuts in an email today (13 March).

Between 40 and 55 support staff jobs will be cut. The firm said trainees will not be affected.

In January, Baker & McKenzie made 20 associates redundant in London as part of a separate consultation.

Senior’s email to staff, titled ‘Responding to the current business environment,’ read: ‘The current economic climate is proving exceptionally challenging for most businesses, and we too have seen further declines in our workflows. In January I announced a review of our support functions, secretarial model and other costs. Based on our current financial projections, and the outcomes of the reviews, it is clear that further action needs to be taken which will affect secretaries, legal departments and support departments. Trainees will not be affected by these proposals.

‘We are working closely with the department managers and heads of support functions to explore options for dealing with current trading conditions. We have reduced costs wherever possible, and expect that salaries will be frozen for the next financial year. Based on our current financial projections, we do not anticipate paying an all-staff bonus this year.

‘Despite these steps, having closely reviewed our costs, incoming work, and the legal, support staff and secretary population, we now believe that redundancies in all departments need to be considered.

‘We are proposing that 60-85 roles are at risk of redundancy. Of these, we anticipate 20-30 coming from our legal practices, about half of which are proposed to come from corporate, 20-30 secretaries and 20-25 support staff. A formal consultation process will be launched on 31 March, which we anticipate will run until 30 April.

‘During this process, we will be consulting with elected employee representatives. We want to hear what employee representatives have to say, and we will consult with them about relevant issues, including ways of avoiding redundancies and reducing the number of redundancies. We will also work with employee representatives to answer many of the specific questions you may have. As a result of this process, we have decided to defer our annual evaluation process until it is completed.

‘I want to assure you that we will continue to look at, and discuss with employee representatives, ways of retaining as many people as possible, including reducing working hours, and offering sabbaticals and unpaid leave.’