Thursday, February 3, 2011

CMS Cameron McKenna - Support Staff Outsourcing

The CMS Cameron McKenna news from late 2010 regarding the firm's massive support staff outsourcing deal to Integreon continues to be the most popular story for reader comments on both The Lawyer and Legal Week sites.

It is estimated that 9% of staff will face redundancy, with a further 21% facing relocation requests (to either Bristol or India). In total, the move impacts 363 support staff from the firm (half of which are located in the firm's current London headquarters).

As reported by The Lawyer magazine on 25th January, Duncan Weston (Managing Partner) outlined some of the reasons behind the move in a recent note to all staff “The changing legal landscape requires constant innovation in the way we do business. This new approach to our business services will give us the ability to focus on our clients and provide a more sophisticated service.

“It creates greater flexibility to scale support services based on demand, and gives us access to a more advanced technology with the benefits of future investment by Integreon towards building a unified business model. It’ll also allow us the option to integrate our approach to business services across our international businesses.”

With numerous emotive comments being posted by readers on the above mentioned article, at the very least it indicates that the CMS Cameron McKenna support staff are reading the legal industry press.

Stripping the emotive comments aside, as one reader states "They're doing this to cut costs aren't they and if that means cutting some of the flab out of the headcount so be it. This is a business after all".

As per our recent item on Allen & Overy and Herbert Smith moving elements of their support functions out of London and across to Belfast, how long before firms in other high cost regions in the US and Australia look to do the same?

3 comments:

LiveChat85 said...

Staff outsourcing or staff leasing is starting to make its name in the market today.

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Robert Nelson said...

I don't know why people use staff out sourcing and what is its benefit to them??
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Allan said...

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