DWF announces 38 redundancies
LAW firm DWF has confirmed 38 people have been made redundant following its acquisition of Cobbetts out of administration last month.
The job losses are understood to include DWF staff as well as those brought in from Cobbetts.
Cobbetts had 491 staff, including 72 are partners, based across offices in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and London. DWF has offices in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool amongst others.
Former Cobbetts Manchester office head Paul Johnson was one of several senior equity partners to have departed following the deal. He is understood to have been joined by Manchester head of corporate Sean Fitzgerald, corporate partner Robert Turnbull and Mark Whittell, a senior commercial litigation and dispute resolution team.
In a statement, the firm said: “Further to the announcement last month that it had acquired Cobbetts, DWF has now confirmed that as a result of the move, 38 roles within the now combined central services teams are to be made redundant. The announcement follows the consultation period, which concluded on 22 March.
“Inevitably with an acquisition of this size and nature there was an element of overlap of roles within central services. As a result, over 140 people, made up of both DWF and the legacy Cobbetts firm, were initially placed at risk of redundancy. However, as of Friday 22 March, 83 have now been placed into roles, 21 are still in the selection process and 38 roles have been confirmed as redundant.
“However, DWF continues to grow and currently has over 40 vacancies across the firm and all individuals confirmed as at risk have been encouraged to apply for these positions, where such roles meet their career aspirations. For those leaving the business DWF has a dedicated team providing a series of career workshops and continued individual support.”
