RBS claims that legal profession should cut 6,000 jobs
updated on 22 March 2012
A report by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has argued that the UK legal market should address its over-capacity by cutting 5% of solicitor jobs - which according to recent figures would amount to the loss of nearly 6,000 positions. RBS believes that the measures would save the country’s legal sector around £280 million in annual costs.
The RBS report comes as a result of the profession’s struggle to sustain growth over the last thee years. As reported in Legal Week, RBS argues that cuts are necessary to stabilise the profession’s profitability at a time of low demand for legal services. There is also uncertainty about the potential effects of the Legal Services Act on the sector.
The head of law firm banking at RBS, James Tsolakis, reaffirmed his belief in the necessity of cuts, while claiming that many lawyers at partnership level fail to appreciate the challenges currently facing the profession: "We would see a good case to take out 5% of fee earners to put the profession on more stable levels of profitability, [but] managing partners have a view [of the market] that is not shared by the partnerships. There is still a massive disconnect between managing partners and partnerships about the things that need to be implemented."
