Companies House filings show £3.1m in redundancy payouts

Baker & McKenzie spent over £3m restructuring its London office last year after making 70 employees redundant.

The firm, which laid off 21 fee earners, 21 business support staff and 28 secretaries in its London office in May last year, paid out £3.1m in redundancy costs over the 2008-09 financial year, according to the latest limited liability partnership filings at Companies House.

Despite the redundancies, average fee-earner headcount stayed broadly static, increasing by three to 390 year-on-year, as the firm includes its trainee intake in this number. Overall average headcount including all staff dropped 26 to 685 compared to 711 the year previous.

The firm spent £40m on wages and salaries in the last financial year, marking a slight increase on £38.6m the year before.

The average number of partners increased from 78 to 82, with the highest-earning partner taking home £638,137 compared to £826,787 the previous year. Profits per equity partner also dropped, falling 27%, from £572,000 to £418,000; however, the firm had originally anticipated a drop of 33% prior to its accounts being audited.

UK turnover, meanwhile, dropped at the law firm by around 4% coming in at £115m compared to £119.8m in 2007-08.

Bakers City chief financial officer Mark Carter commented: "Like many law firms we experienced a drop-off in transactional activity and legal spend, which contributed to the drop in revenues. However, despite the market conditions we were broadly satisfied with the results, which were in line with our expectations."