BY:
Caterina Conti
Media Operations
PROJECT COUNSEL MEDIA
8 June 2020 (Paris, France) – It’s a new club, hastily assembled in the middle of a pandemic and not one that many legal sector workers willingly want to join. It’s known as “The 20 per cent Club” – currently home to a third (32 per cent) of The Lawyer’s Top 50 UK firms. This is a growing collective that are applying the 20 per cent reduction rule to working hours and associated salaries.
Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) became the club’s inaugural member at the beginning of April. NRF lawyers who signed up to its Flex scheme will take a 20 per cent cut in pay, while those on lower salaries will see wages fall by between five and 20 per cent. It’s part of a broader package of measures the firm is using to hoard cash, including deferring quarterly profit distributions and putting bonuses under review.
We skimmed the jewels from The Lawyer report and it rolls out like this:
32 per cent of the UK Top 50 have offered reduced hours
Of the 16 Top 50 firms to have implemented changes in working hours or salaries, half (8) have introduced the 20 per cent rule. Membership of the 20 per cent club has been taken up by Ashurst, Eversheds Sutherland, DAC Beachcroft, Pinsent Masons, Mills & Reeve, Shoosmiths and Slaughter and May – although Slaughters did not comment publicly on salary reductions.
There are firms threatening to take a tougher position if trading conditions fail to improve. Mishcon de Reya, for instance, will initiate a 30 per cent cut to salaries and working hours should the economy tank. There are also firms that have responded to individual staff requests for flexible working hours – BLM and TLT, for instance – but have not introduced a wholesale reduction – yet.
Simmons’ own bid to become the latest signatory of the 20 per cent club last week would require 75 per cent of staff and lawyers to vote in favour of a 20 per cent cut. To outsiders it might seem akin to turkeys voting Christmas, but given the choice between pay cut or no job in the current climate, which would you prefer?
