A very early mover in reducing staff and cutting costs at the onset of the GFC, we have today received encouraging news that national mid-tier Herbert Geer is giving staff some long-awaited hope in the future of the firm.

This from an anonymous Herbert Geer spy yesterday:

I’m a junior at Herbert Geer and can very happily confirm that after a sustained period of recruitment (over the last month or so), we have been told we’re receiving a Christmas bonus! $1000 to be exact… This has been given a tick of approval by all staff…

We give a tick too! It is nice that Bill Fazio and the crew can find some dosh to give to staff, especially after it found funds to carry out an elaborate and poorly timed fit-out of its Melbourne office.

Perhaps it is time to lift the moratorium on morning teas and birthday celebrations?

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We reported in May rumours that national mid-sized firm Herbert Geer had implemented a range of cost-cutting measures, including claims of secret redundancies and tight-fisted party-pooping.

We remarked in July on the inconsistency between these cost-cutting allegations and the rumoured decadent refurbishment of Herbert Geer’s Melbourne office.

Today, with thanks to ALB, it became clear that Herbert Geer probably was never in the kind of financial straights that would have warranted the rumoured cost-cuts and redundancies. Managing partner Bill Fazio today said:

I think in terms of our business … we were underexposed to construction, infrastructure, major projects

Underexposed … to a few of the areas suffering GFC-induced workflow reductions? We would have thought this is a cause for celebration, not party-pooping! In the same article, it is noted that Fazio expects the firm:

to continue on the trajectory that has seen it grow 50% in the last financial year …’we expect to be continuing to grow throughout this financial year on a significant basis.’

With all this undexposure, rumoured cost-cuts and redundancies, it is probably no surprise that Herbert Geer has enjoyed this tremendous growth. But has Herbert Geer given workers the bum steer?

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Unlike the partners at HWL Ebsworth who are relegated to the ‘financial conservatism’ of a dodgey office fit-out, it has emerged that an extravagant refurbishment of the Melbourne offices of Herbert Geer is allegedly afoot.

Whereas the comparably-sized mid-tier firm HWL Ebsworth is hangin’ tough with a ‘disinterest in overly flashy office fit-outs and endless internal functions and events’, Herbert Geer is allegedly living it up with a decor re-design.

It is interesting to note the recent divergence in fortunes of the two firms, possibly attributable to the alleged decor divergence. Herbert Geer has allegedly gone on a secret sacking spree and general cost cutting, while HWL Ebsworth has made-up a host of partners to rejoin the exclusive 100+ partner club.

Is a refurbishment appropriate in these trying times?

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Outside of Herbert Geer, managing partner Bill Fazio is regarded as a very capable litigator. Inside the office, he apparently puts those skills to good use as ringleader of a spendthrift razor gang.

In a Firm Spy exclusive, we can report that Bill Fazio wrote a firm-wide email informing staff that very draconian cost cuts were to be enforced by the firm. Among the changes announced were:

• no morning teas;
• no birthday lunches or celebrations;
• no afternoon teas;
• partner lunches no longer to be cooked meals but ‘standard fare’ (whatever that means); and
• monthly firm drinks to be run on a much tighter budget.

While the details of the changed lunches and tighter budget were not made clear, Fazio took time to stress that the changes were made necessary as a result of the GFC and in an effort to save jobs.  Herbert Geer then went on a secret sacking spree.

As to Fazio’s popularity in the office, our spy says:

Bill is about as popular as Matthew Johns right now

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In contrast to Australian law firms which have been forthright about lawyers and support staff redundancies, and those that have even announced that office stationary supplies are being reduced, mid-tier firm Herbert Geer has apparently gone on a silent sacking-spree.

Herbert Geer first dropped the Rundle, and now the Bundle!

According to one source:

Herbert Geer has let some of their corporate lawyers from their Brisbane and Melbourne offices go within the past few months. They seem to have escaped attention for doing so, however, because they are only mid-tier (if even that). Like other firms they didn’t have the courage to pucker up and simply admit to the lawyers they culled that they were being let go due to the economic downturn. No, that would mean they would have to on some level fcking acknowledge reality. Instead they claimed that the lawyers they let go weren’t pulling their weight and were lousy employees. I guess at the end of the day they haven’t acted all too differently from other firms. But the moral of the story is if someone was working for a firm that was at least up front with them and the fact they were being made redundant, at least that has some modicum of honesty to it.

Following this critique, a spokesperson commented that the firm had

made two or three people redundant and that we, as do all businesses, have redundancies from time to time.

Has a fear of redundacies descended on Herbert Geer? What about at your firm?