{"id":2062337,"date":"2020-06-30T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T05:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/?p=2062337"},"modified":"2020-06-30T00:32:59","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T23:32:59","slug":"dwf-office-closure-brussels-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/news\/2062337-dwf-office-closure-brussels-singapore","title":{"rendered":"Law firm closes offices as part of cost-cutting moves"},"content":{"rendered":"

DWF has made its first major cost-cutting moves since former chief executive Andrew Leaitherland was defenestrated last month.<\/p>\n

The Manchester-based law firm is shutting two international offices and scaling back two more.<\/p>\n

60 jobs will be lost, including 13 partners, when it closes its Brussels and Singapore offices and reduces its presence in Dubai and Cologne.
\n

\"\"

Sir Nigel Knowles<\/p><\/div>
\nSir Nigel Knowles, group chief executive of DWF, said: “Longer-term, these markets remain of interest but this is the right move for DWF at this time.”<\/p>\n

It is only 15 months since DWF followed Gateley and Knights in floating on the London stock exchange at 122p per share, valuing the firm at \u00a3366m.<\/p>\n

By early March it had increased its market cap to more than \u00a3450m, but since then it has lost its chief executive and 60% of its value on the way to its shares closing last night at a new low of 55p.<\/p>\n

The law firm said “there are no plans for any further closures or significant reductions” in any of its remaining 31 locations – 21 of which are outside the UK. It will employ more than 4,000 people after the restructuring takes effect.<\/p>\n

“Our international division is a critically important engine for growth for our business,” said Sir Nigel. “It is a vital ingredient in our business model to support our global client base.<\/p>\n

“The decision to close two of our smaller locations will help drive operational improvements across our business to generate more profitable growth.”
\n

\"\"

Andrew Leaitherland<\/p><\/div>
\nLast month DWF revealed profits were lower than expected after the Covid-19 outbreak hit its performance in the final, and most important, quarter.<\/p>\n

In late March it forecast revenue growth of 15-20% in the year to April 2020, but it was forced to reduce that to 11% by the end of May.<\/p>\n

At the same time it announced the immediate departure of Leaitherland, who had worked at DWF for more than 20 years and had led the firm since 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manchester-based firm has lost its long-standing chief executive and 60% of its market value since March<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2062338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"coauthors":[81],"class_list":["post-2062337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-top-story"],"yoast_head":"\nLaw firm DWF closes international offices as part of cost-cutting moves | TheBusinessDesk.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Manchester-based firm has lost its long-standing chief executive Andrew Leaitherland and 60% of its market value since March\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/news\/2062337-dwf-office-closure-brussels-singapore\" \/>\n<meta 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