KLegal slashes jobs

Some 62 staff - including 20 fee-earners - are being made redundant at KLegal, with partners also set to face the chop in the coming months.

The firm, which is associated with accountants KPMG, is laying off lawyers in the London-based corporate, projects and banking teams.

The 42 secretarial and support staff redundancies are across both the London and Scottish practices; earlier this year, City firm KLegal merged with top Scottish firm McGrigor Donald to form a 71-partner practice.

Managing partner Nick Holt said the fee-earner losses are 'a response to current market conditions and our view that they are not going to improve for some time'.

He added: 'I envisage that a number of partners will be leaving over the coming months.' However, Mr Holt would not expand on this, save to say that these departures would also be as a response to economic conditions.

The redundancies among secretarial and support staff were down to three reasons, he explained: post-merger rationalisation; greater efficiencies that all law firms are trying to achieve; and the fee-earner job losses, which meant there was a reduced need for secretaries.

Mr Holt said: 'Nobody likes any of this, but you have to look at the market and take a view.'

In May, Addleshaw Booth & Co announced that 11 partners would be made redundant after a review found the firm to be top-heavy.

Neil Rose