‘I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can do that.’
Baker McKenzie is laying off up to a tenth of its global business services workforce as part of a reorganisation driven in part by its increased use of AI.
Sources told RollOnFriday this week that Bakers was cutting “dozens of roles in London and Belfast” and “100s across the firm including in their offshore centers”, across functions including know-how, research, marketing, secretarial”.
RollOnFriday understands the firm is seeking to make less than 10% of the worldwide support workforce redundant, equivalent to approximately 600-1,000 people.
A spokesperson said, “we recently undertook a careful review of our business professionals functions” in order to “position the Firm for continued growth and remain agile in a fast-evolving business context”.
Sources told ROF this week that Bakers was cutting “dozens of roles in London and Belfast” and “100s across the firm including in their offshore centers”, across functions including know-how, research, marketing, secretarial”.
The spokesperson said, “This review was aimed at rethinking the ways in which we work, including through our use of AI, introducing efficiencies, and investing in those roles that best serve our clients’ needs”.
Pointing out that Bakers was not the only law firm making swingeing cuts to its legal support teams, the spokesperson said that “Following the review, and consistent with many other organizations, we are proposing a series of changes to how we operate and deliver important business services”.
In November, Clifford Chance cut 10% of its UK business services staff while Irwin Mitchell slashed all its litigation paralegals. Freshfields cited AI as it laid off paralegals in September
Bakers suggested cryptically that “some roles will likely be phased out” but “others will evolve”.
“We have not taken decisions around these proposed changes lightly, but felt it was necessary to deliver on our long-term plans. We appreciate the valuable contributions our impacted colleagues have made to the Firm and will be supporting them”, they said.
The reaction from some of those facing the chop was less measured, with one employee telling ROF their bosses were “short sighted” (plus several expletives).