Redundancy Watch: Merrill Lynch Lawyers. Shearman Salary Shredding. But Olswang Gets Oomph From Freshfields…
In-house and safe are no longer words you might be inclined to stick in the same sentence. Banking lawyers particularly have not escaped the culls sweeping the profession. Embattled Merrill Lynch has just had its UK legal team slashed by 25% following the bank’s merger with Bank of America. Elsewhere in the City, US firm, Shearman & Sterling, is cutting newly qualified solicitor pay by more than 8 per cent and is freezing trainee and associate salaries across its offices …
In-house and safe are no longer words you might be inclined to stick in the same sentence. Banking lawyers particularly have not escaped the culls sweeping the profession. Embattled Merrill Lynch has just had its UK legal team slashed by 25% following the bank’s merger with Bank of America.
Elsewhere in the City, US firm, Shearman & Sterling, is cutting newly qualified solicitor pay by more than 8 per cent and is freezing trainee and associate salaries across its offices in the UK, Asia and Middle East. The firm is cutting its NQ rates from £80,000 to £73,000 and Second year trainee solicitors will be stuck at their first year rate of £39,000.
Whilst there’s a lot of firing and freezing still going on, some firms are bucking the trend and trying to increase their ranks – in a zero sum game of lateral chess, Olswang has done some nifty manouvering in Berlin and pinched a team of 11 real estate lawyers from rival Freshfields…
March 26, 2009
coup for olswang
March 26, 2009
aren’t safe full stop
March 26, 2009
I keep looking up at the sky expecting it all to fall in….
But its not going to, this is all a hogwash
March 26, 2009
neither are bankers
amazed that any firms are taking large numbers of real-estate lawyers at the moment
March 26, 2009
Now Dubai is dead, I guess the next alternative is Berlin. Bring out the builders.