It emerged earlier in the week that hard-up Latvians, unable to procure a traditional bank loan, can now pledge their soul as security for a revolutionary loan scheme pioneered by the Kontora Loan Company:

Clients have to sign a contract, with the words “Agreement” in bold letters at the top. The client agrees to the collateral, “that is, my immortal soul”.

pay us, or Barry gets the soul

In other news, we have received several reports now about as-yet unreported redundancies at top-tier national law firm Clayton Utz. This from an anonymous Clutz spy:

Clayton Utz  boasts so much that it tries to support & develop staff so I don’t understand why it would just cut stuff loose. Rumours are rife about more cuts at CU & all the grads are quite worried as there isn’t much work around & back in Feb/March they cut at least 5 grads that I know of, denied 1 grad a LOA so they left (they probably don’t include that figure), and keep changing the commencement date for the next intake of grads. Can FirmSpy pls see what info they can come up with?

Well, in terms of what we ‘can come up with’, we have since had two separate anonymous sources offer surprisingly similar claims to that in the above email. These sources allege that more than one graduate was made redundant at the conclusion of their graduate year and several more were given fixed-term contracts, rather than permanent employment.

If true, these measures would amount to a stunning reversal of form from the firm that heartily said of the GFC as recently as December 2008:

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

You’ll recall that in the intervening period, Clayton Utz has instituted a pay freeze and also asked some workers to take an involuntary leave of absence. No word yet on whether the allegedly redundant graduates have had to sell their soul.  Or did they already do that when they walked in the door?

Have you got a soul to squeeze? Send the Firm Spy your news and views!

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