Following recent news that Eversheds’ partners have limited their intake of pudding and wine at firm lunches, here’s another round of redundancy talks. It is understood that up to 45 lawyers and related support staff might be affected.

Meanwhile White & Case has announced that it will lay off 3% of its global legal and staff headcount. This is likely to affect about 70 associates and 90 staff across all of White & Case’s US offices. It is understood that 10 London-based associates have been warned that they are at risk of redundancy.

Yet more bad news…

David Gray, Eversheds chief executive said: “While we have difficulties in real estate and transactional work, a lot of the cylinders of our business are firing strong.” Those affected are predominantly in the M&A, finance and insurance departments. Gray added: “Whilst regrettable, it is important to put the proposed redundancies in context. We will continue to employ 1,300 lawyers in the UK alone. We are also continuing to recruit in areas that are performing strongly, such as pensions, projects, anti-trust and restructuring.”

White & Case chairman Hugh Verrier said in a statement: "We are living in a time of unique economic challenges, and well-managed, successful businesses, including White & Case, must assess their operations in light of current market realities,". "We believe this is a necessary step to adjust to the global economic downturn and to ensure a strong, long-term future for the firm."

One partner from a rival US firm commented: “US firms that make lots of people redundant – especially in London where the battle to retain talent is at its hottest – face having their reputations tarnished for a good five to six years.”

With the deluge of redundancies (click the redundancy tag at the top for an idea of the scale of the problem) by firms across the UK and the US, guess we will have to wait and see…

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