Freedom Shackled; Freehills Partner Tempers Earlier Encouraging Firm Comments

In what might be construed as an effort to assuage the earlier message that the firm is ‘in good stead’, Freehills

managing partner Gavin Bell has made some comments which will likely dampen the festive cheer enjoyed by many Freehills lawyers.

Bell recently commented:

‘We are in the calm before the storm… Things will be quite grim… for some time.’

In perhaps the clearest indication that Freehills lawyers might face the prospect of redundancy going forward, Bell also commented:

‘Some of the large firms are laying people off and the others are doing their best to keep existing people busy.’

Given that Freehills is clearly one of Australia’s large firms, this comments would appear to indicate that it is either:

• in the process of making people redundant; or
• struggling to keep staff busy.

Whichever is the correct answer, a dark shadow is now cast over one of Australia’s top-tier firms with the new year seeming ominous.

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