London-based Magic Circle firm Allen & Overy is the second to announce a redundancy consultation, with 10 lawyers in its Hong Kong office expected to lose their jobs.
The news comes just over a week after Clifford Chance
Like management teams in the rest of the magic circle, A&O senior partner David Morley has been reluctant to discuss redundancies.
What others are doing in the market doesn’t change anything for us. We continue, as before, to keep things under close review as current market conditions remain exceptionally difficult.
Like any business, we cannot rule out the possibility of having to make targeted redundancies in particular practice groups or offices if there is a sustained downturn or if there are exceptional business reasons.
Staff were told via an intranet posting that the firm could not rule out layoffs in London. The situation is similar at the rest of the magic circle, although firms are reluctant to discuss the matter.
“Magic Circle” is an informal term used to describe collectively what are considered to be the six leading London-based law firms.