Articles From the Team

Acquisition/mergers and threat of redundancy

We hear about it more and more about firm’s aggressive plans to grow and expand their various departments and offices. I have particularly noticed this with claimant PI firms, first there was Quindell who were seen to be taking over smaller high street practices nationally and recruiting the staff from these firms into their teams.

More recently we have seen Slater & Gordon embark upon the same journey, wiping out competition from the smaller to medium sized personal injury firms so that they can dominate the claimant personal injury market. Given the changes that will come into force regarding the increased limit on small claims means that PI teams need to work smart and run efficiently in order to be cost effective. This is not possible when you have a large work force and trying to achieve commercial success when the odds are stacked up against you.

This can only mean one thing……restructure! It’s a word that evokes only feeling of despair, worry and uncertainty. Slater & Gordon like many personal injury firms will be affected by the changes and they have announced possible redundancies across their Manchester and Derby offices. Please see link to article in Insider Media Limited for further information: http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/national/slater-gordon-reveals-50-jobs-at-risk

It would seem that it will no longer be cost effective to run those two offices and that the only way to decrease their overheads is to cut back on their property portfolio. This of course in turn means that people will lose their jobs if they cannot be relocated to one of their other offices, if that of course is even an option.

Sadly, for those that might be affected, redundancy means having to think about securing a new job. Despite the ongoing concerns about the claimant market taking a dip, on the other side we are seeing a lot more defendant opportunities. Defendant personal injury teams are receiving more instructions from insurer clients and as a result defendant personal injury teams are positively encouraging applications from claimant lawyers looking to cross over to the other side.

I have recently placed a number of claimant lawyers from both high street and national practices into national and international defendant firms across various departments. This has included RTA, EL/PL, professional indemnity and insurance fraud.

If you are a claimant lawyer who is concerned about your long term future and are keeping an open mind then please contact BCL Legal or call 0161 819 7475 to have a confidential chat about opportunities across the Midlands, Northern Home County and Hampshire.