Law firm to close three North West offices

Troubled law firm Slater and Gordon is planning to close three offices in the North West.

The company will shut offices in Chester and Wrexham as well as Milton Keynes in the South within the next 12 months and its Preston operation will also cease when a lease on the property it occupies expires next summer.

Employees were told about the plans on Monday and with moves to redeploy staff to larger city centres are under way.

A statement from the company said: “Slater and Gordon is focused on being the UK’s leading provider of consumer legal services and making sure we are best placed to serve our clients – now and in the future.

“We have assessed our geographic footprint with a view to bringing it in line with our vision of delivering our services from strategic centres of excellence.

“Following this review, we are considering a plan to consolidate a number of our smaller offices into our larger regional hubs, where colleagues can share their outstanding knowledge and expertise across a range of legal fields.

“We will work closely with the colleagues impacted during the consultation period and, where possible, plan to move colleagues to one of our centres of excellence.”

Although the closures are being limited to four sites, some other groups and individuals are being relocated, including small clinical negligence team in Liverpool which will be amalgamated into a bigger site.

Slater and Gordon has 14 offices with a total workforce of 3,000.

Earlier this year was reported to have downgraded up to 40 partners to employee status.

The firm has undergone a significant overhaul of its UK business in the past two years which has cut staff numbers by around 1,000 and shut down some 10 locations.

Its business was separated from its Australian parent company in August and is now effectively owned by major lenders.

This followed financial difficulties precipitated by the decision to acquire the legal services arm of listed entity Quindell for £637m.

Slater and Gordon’s company’s share price pummeted as massive losses were suffered in the aftermath of the acquisition.