"There is now a consistent stream of redundancies across a cross-section of law firms and that will probably continue" comments Anil Shah, managing director of LPA Legal Recruitment. "Soon it will be a question not of who is making redundancies but who is not. Those will be the firms that are bearing up better in this market".
There is an argument that the shape and scope of City legal practice is significantly different now than it was in the early 90s, making it more resilient to the effects of a recession. As Shah points out: "The market was a lot smaller in the early 90s - there were far fewer law firms and the American firms had not hit the London market in the numbers that they have done since. It's a much, much bigger market now and if you were to look at it proportionately, we are not yet at the stage in percentage terms of the numbers that were made redundant in the 1990 recession.".
The City firms are banking on globalisation, restructuring and reallocation of staff being firms' first response before redundancy.
Anil Shah, Managing Director of LPA Legal Recruitment was interviewed by Jonathan Ames, City AM, 3 December 2008.