Taylor Wessing unveils cost-cutting measures

Taylor Wessing has asked its staff to accept a number of measures aimed at avoiding widespread job cuts at the firm, including unpaid holiday, sabbaticals, voluntary redundancies and a pay freeze.

In a bid to reduce the need for large-scale layoffs, the firm is proposing to sell staff two weeks' unpaid holiday, which would equate to a 3.85% salary cut.

The firm is also offering sabbaticals and voluntary redundancies to all staff - excluding partners - and will transfer lawyers to busier areas within the firm.

The firm also said that it has begun a redundancy consultation with ten associates and ten support and secretarial staff, with the expectation that not all 20 will lose their jobs.

In addition, 2009 associate pay bands have been frozen. The firm expects that salary levels for newly-qualified lawyers are likely to drop, but by exactly how much is as yet undecided.

The firm said that implementing these measures will remove the need for sweeping redundancies.

Taylor Wessing chief operating officer Jonathan Croucher said: "While a small number of redundancies will regrettably be unavoidable, the combination and variety of measures being taken are enabling us to keep the numbers affected to an absolute minimum.

"The [unpaid holiday] proposal, one of a number of measures to mitigate the necessity for job losses, has been well received and we are hopeful that the large majority of staff will agree to it very readily as a collective response to the downturn which will save jobs."

Trainees for the firm's 2009 and 2010 intake have been asked to defer training contract start dates on a voluntary basis, with the firm awarding £7,500 for those that take up the offer.

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