City firm Taylor Wessing is to cut up to nine associates and nine support staff and has asked all staff to buy extra holiday by means of a salary cut.

The firm said today (21 April) that the latter proposal is ‘one of a number of measures to mitigate the necessity for job losses,’ adding that ‘a small number of redundancies will regrettably be unavoidable’. Voluntary redundancies and sabbaticals have been offered to all staff, while some lawyers are being seconded to clients and others transferred between practice groups.

In the next financial year, Taylor Wessing staff will be able to buy two additional weeks, at the cost of 3.85% of their salary.

The firm has also initiated a pay freeze for the year, and said there will be a ‘commensurate’ reduction in salary for newly qualified lawyers.

Chief operating officer Jonathan Croucher said the measures were necessary to ‘ensure we continue to be in the right position to respond to the current economic situation’.

He added: ‘The broad nature of our practice, particularly our strengths in non-cyclical areas such as insurance, private client and intellectual property, means that we are not having to cut as deeply as other firms,’ he said. ‘Our key aim has been to minimise the need for compulsory redundancies. The combination and variety of measures being taken are enabling us to keep the numbers affected to an absolute minimum.’