The downward spiral of the economy seems to be creating growing trends which are somewhat predictable when you consider them. Associates anywhere and everywhere appear more and more vulnerable to the threat of redundancy with Clifford Chance last week joined by Macfarlanes this week in announcing consultations (and rumours of vigourous ‘performance’ related redundancies at other City firms). Meanwhile Cadwalder ("Find the perfect fit") has seen a crowd of partners exit its City office but is certainly not the first firm to face people jumping ship for the relative safety of a rival. So can we detect a loyalty issue here amongst firms and their lawyers, such things being a two way street and all…?

How about the growing background noise of deferred training contract offerings. We have received several enquiries relating to this issue recently and heard more than a couple of rumours but as yet no-one wants to shout about it. Again there is an image issue here, firms want to be seen to be upholding certain core values (see loyalty point above) but do these niceties go out of the window when the enemy is at the gates?

"At Clifford Chance it all comes down to our people. Our desire to excel on behalf of our clients, the quality of the work that we attract, our international capabilities, our collaborative and supportive working culture, our innovative approach, they are all generated by our people."

Without being too down on CC (we think their up-front approach to layoffs is commendable given the more underhand methods being employed by rivals) the above extract from their graduate recruitment page is something of a case in point. The downturn perhaps may be beginning to show that some of the softer credentials organisations like to flout in the good times could just possibly be whisker-thin image plugs dreamt up by marketing departments, maybe… After all, business is business and firms will be judged more by their bottom lines and PEP than how many associates they had to oust to maintain them.

Finally, with the tide heading out rapidly, it seems likely that we will be more scrutiny of where things are going wrong and, in the event, more fraudulent activity uncovered. Fraud as a crime has a particular fascination for educated types, with it generally being carried out at a sophisticated level. So keep an eye out as there is likely to be something that piques the interest in the coming weeks and months and you don’t want to be caught swimming with the naked people.