You have to give Olswang credit for guts. In a jittery market in which law firms are still trying to work out what the credit squeeze means for their business, it takes guts to risk the negative publicity of becoming the first major
Understandably, the firm, which convincingly stresses it remains in growth mode, is keen to put the decision in the context of a limited move rather than a broader reaction to the market (see page 5). Five assistants will likely face redundancy in what the firm says is a practice-specific reorganisation of a 90-strong team.
All the redundancies will come from the commercial property team, leaving the large contentious practice untouched. And some also point out that the legacy DJ Freeman’s property team — which has made up the nucleus of Olswang’s property practice since 2003 — had a tendency to recruit aggressively when the market was buoyant, only to shed when workflow turns down.
And yet, despite widespread expectations that the commercial property sector is to face leaner times, there has been surprise that the firm has moved so swiftly to cut back what has been a successful team during Olswang’s dotcrash recovery period.
In the same way that it was surprising that Clifford Chance risked the brickbats of
In this context, there will be those who see a further distancing of the leadership from former chief executive Jonathan Goldstein, who was associated with the move into property and is known to be no fan of job cuts.
That distancing would be less about substance — Jonny’s playbook never strayed far from Law Firm Strategy 101 — than about style. Goldstein’s personality helped articulate Olswang’s drive and distinctiveness; the new management team is still hunting for something a little different. Whatever that ends up being, senior partner Mark Devereux says property remains “part of our DNA”, as does the media and technology focus. Well, they’ve still got front.