From: Jeremy Sandelson 
Sent:  8th January 2009
To: All Staff
Subject:

This note is to tell you that we are proposing to make a number of lawyers redundant in the London office.

The downturn in economic activity over the past year is affecting many of our clients and, as a result, many areas of our business. We believe this is likely to remain the case for some time to come. Like any organisation, we have to ensure that our staffing levels are appropriate to our volume of business activity.

As a consequence, we are proposing to make approximately 70-80 lawyers redundant and we will be entering into a collective consultation process. Note that trainees will not be affected by these proposals.

All lawyers are invited today to a series of short presentations in the Auditorium. Trainees are invited to a separate session. Please see attached a schedule showing when all these will take place. A short explanatory note will also be circulated later today to ensure those involved are fully aware of what is happening.

In addition, we will be carrying out a review of Business Services across the London office over the coming weeks; depending on the outcome of this review, there is a possibility of further redundancies in Business Services in due course. A separate communication will be sent out to Business Services shortly.

The decision to make redundancies is not one that we have made lightly but, having seen the economy deteriorate for some months now, it is clear that these actions need to be taken in order to ensure that the London office is in a strong position as and when the economic environment improves.

Jeremy