Clayton Utz Redundancies are a ‘Conscious Choice to Keep Resources’

In the current edition of BRW, Clayton Utz chief executive partner David Fagan makes the following comments:

has anyone seen my file-a-fax?

We’ve gone through a period where recruiting staff has been a difficult exercise, so we made a conscious choice to keep resources because it’s important to the firm’s future.

In the AFR last week (12/6), Fagan confirmed that in this financial year at least 13 lawyers and a “handful” of support staff had either been made redundant or:

counselled out for performance.

So in one article (11/6) Clayton Utz is ‘keeping resources’ and, in another (12/6), Clayton Utz is acknowledging widespread redundancies and confirming Clutz has ‘managed out’ several workers.

You’ll recall back in May, we exclusively revealed that despite comments in the AFR from partner Stuart Clark that Clutz had ‘not made a final decision about legal salaries’, staff had in fact been informed earlier that they would be subject to a firm-wide pay freeze.

You’ll also recall comments we heard back in December when, in advocating the strength of the Clayton Utz practice, David Fagan noted:

It is a very unique environment but even out of periods of difficulty, opportunities arise and you have to be there, nimble, looking for these opportunities.

Soon after these comments, the firm sacked several workers, cunningly implemented a pay freeze, and is rumoured to have asked several staff to take invountary leaves of absence.