It seems that firms across the nation are revising their coffee budgets!

Minter Ellison apparently made the out-of-character discretionary spend of indulging employees in free - yes free! - Minter Ellison branded coffee cups. AAR axed the coffee-cart in its Melbourne office. And now, mid-tier firm Maddocks has made its own revisions, albeit with a silver lining.

This from an anonymous Maddocks spy yesterday:

This isn’t the first time that Maddocks has meddled with the produce ingested by its staff. You’ll recall in June that the firm was rumoured to have sacked its kitchen chef:

Many support staff have been whittled down by Maddocks through redundancies, including the chef from the Melbourne office a few months ago.

Yet, at the same time, the following was found on its website:

Maddocks is a great place to build your career in legal services. We are a rapidly growing mid-sized firm … We offer …non-legal professionals … opportunities to be part of our success… Our people are our greatest asset and we invest heavily in attracting and retaining the best at Maddocks… with the depth of resources we provide, your career is nurtured and developed at every stage.

…and you get a free coffee cup with “Maddocks” written on it!

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Gordon Ramsay has been caught fibbing about being bollocked by his mother for his foul-mouthed tirade at Tracy Grimshaw. But Ramsay, it seems, is not the only chef confronted with personal hardship in recent times… and it might all be attributable to telling fibs!

We reported in early May that the partnership at mid-tier law firm Maddocks was making the respectable decision to take a cut in profits to save jobs. However, doubt has been cast on this philanthropic move by the following allegation

received by the Firm Spy on the weekend:

…Many support staff have been whittled down by Maddocks through redundancies, including the chef from the Melbourne office a few months ago…

The cook… gone! If this rumour is true, one wonders whether Maddocks can justifiably continue to publish ambit claims about itself as an employer on its website.

Maddocks is a great place to build your career in legal services. We are a rapidly growing mid-sized firm … We offer …non-legal professionals … opportunities to be part of our success… Our people are our greatest asset and we invest heavily in attracting and retaining the best at Maddocks… with the depth of resources we provide, your career is nurtured and developed at every stage.

Hmmm… and why is a catering position advertised on the site? Not another dodgey redundancy, we hope!

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In contrast to international top-tier heavyweight Mallesons, which, in the face of record revenue is still considering chopping spare lawyers, Maddocks partners have today announced that they are intending to cut their profits in an effort to save jobs.

In what the Firm Spy believes amounts to an Australian-first, Maddocks CEO David Rennick said:

Partners have made a conscious decision to do what we can and make all the decisions we can to retain our people, and that includes being prepared to take a profit cut this year …We’re putting a lot of effort into building our revenue — focusing on the areas on government, infrastructure, financial services and services which are our major sectors — so the very last thing we’ll need to do is to lay off people and we have been able to achieve that thus far.

Flexible work options, such as a nine-day fortnight or four-day week, are also being used by the firm and discussions about job sharing have been held.

These are certainly creative options to keep staff in lean times, but not all firms share Maddocks’ imagination.  Do you think partners can afford to take a cut in lucrative firm profits to save jobs?