Andrew Otterburn, principal at Otterburn Legal Consulting, said: ‘It’s positive if firms are being optimistic but not if they’re being blind to reality. Smaller firms are the ones that are most vulnerable because they don’t always have financial experts on hand or the greatest financial expertise.’

The results of a survey revealed in the Gazette indicate that more than a quarter (27%) of UK firms with three to 10 practitioners actually plan to increase spending on staffing, IT, marketing and office improvements, while two-thirds (64%) plan to continue spending at the same rate .

This seems at odds with what is going on particularly given the broader feeling of misery one gets from reading the financial pages and looking at the rafts of redundancies we have been seeing in the last few weeks.

Not to mention…

A survey of US lawyers revealed that the news might be worse than recent headlines suggest with about 30% of respondents reporting at least some level of involuntary departures at their firms. While only about 4% of respondents said that their firms were actually conducting public layoffs, another 18% accused their firms of conducting "stealth layoffs." There is some evidence that similar happenings are going on over this side of the Atlantic with various UK firms being accused of such practices. Quite how widespread this is we can only guess.

Any ’stealth layoffs’ at your firm or other stories? Contact team solicitr (in total confidence of course).