SJ Berwin to sack partners
28 September 2012
SJ Berwin is set to join other firms in sacking partners in order to improve its financial performance.

The firm is considering whether to eject an unspecified number of partners, according to the Lawyer, focusing on non-core areas which are not seen as sufficiently profitable. A spokeswoman said "as with all law firms, we actively manage the partnership. This is an ongoing process to ensure that the size and structure of the organisation best meets the needs of what continues to be a challenging market". Or, in brief, "we're not making enough money from real estate".

SJB has seemed a happier ship recently under the stewardship of Rob Day, putting some unfortunate incidents behind it such as asking vacation schemers to pull all-nighters and repeatedly failing to secure a US merger. But there's nothing like sacking long established partners to turn a friendly atmosphere into a dystopian nightmare. Watch this space to see how it turns out.

A scrapheap yesterday

 
SJ Berwin is not alone in keeping an eye on the equity. Most firms have managed to keep the numbers affected relatively low, but Linklaters pulled out the extra-long knives earlier this year: some 35 out of 200 London partners were chopped.

If you've got more info on SJB's cull, let RollOnFriday know (anonymously) here.