Jobs under threat at major banks as cuts continue
Turmoil in the financial sector is continuing to spread to in-house lawyers with a growing number of banks poised to make legal redundancies. JPMorgan has laid off several lawyers in London, while those working at Bank of America and Merrill Lynch were this week expecting to learn their fate. JPMorgan refused to comment on the losses but it is understood more than 10 London lawyers have been affected, from teams including structured products and derivatives.
January 29, 2009 at 12:58 AM
2 minute read
Turmoil in the financial sector is continuing to spread to in-house lawyers with a growing number of banks poised to make legal redundancies.
JPMorgan has laid off several lawyers in London, while those working at Bank of America and Merrill Lynch were this week expecting to learn their fate. JPMorgan refused to comment on the losses but it is understood more than 10 London lawyers have been affected, from teams including structured products and derivatives.
Meanwhile, those at newly-combined Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, which has a combined legal team of around 700, were expecting to learn about their futures this week. Legal Week revealed in December that legal staff were having to reapply for their jobs in the wake of the £38bn tie-up that went live at the beginning of this month.
Bank of America is also deciding on a new global general counsel after Brian Moynihan, who was appointed last month, took up the post of president of global banking and global wealth and investment management within the bank. The bank has appointed Edward O'Keefe to fill the general counsel role on an interim basis.
News of the cuts comes as it emerges that former Lloyds TSB general counsel Margaret Coltman is believed to be leaving the bank following its decision to name HBOS legal head Harry Baines as general counsel and company secretary of the merged Lloyds Banking Group in October. Lloyds declined to comment.
Speculation has also been mounting about the legal teams at Royal Bank of Scotland as well as Barclays, which announced it would be making around 4,000 redundancies earlier this month. One banking partner said: "Lawyers in the banking world are not safe from redundancies, even if they survive this round of cuts."
Additional reporting by Emma Sadowski.More in-house news, comment and analysis
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