Major investment in technology and data has contributed to international giant A&O Shearman’s decision to axe an undisclosed number of staff in its business teams.
Following reports that the firm was cutting jobs in its London office, a spokesperson for the firm said: ‘Over the past two years, we have been investing significantly in our central business teams, as well as in technology and data, to deliver smarter and more consistent ways of working across a firm of our scale and ambition. That work has created new roles and reshaped others. In some areas this has meant limited and localised headcount reductions. Where that has been necessary, we are working closely to support affected colleagues.’
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No partners or fee-earners are believed to be affected.
Last year the firm began rolling out ‘agentic’ AI agents to tackle complex legal flows. ‘These AI agents incorporate expertise from A&O Shearman's leading practices into agentic systems that can conduct research and engage in multi-step reasoning over matter-specific documents and curated data,’ the firm said in an announcement at the time.
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