CMS and Dundas & Wilson confirmed today (30 April) that they have made 60 staff redundant ahead of their £300m merger, set to go live tomorrow.
The redundancies follow the duo’s announcement in mid-March that 60 support staff roles were at risk, including 40 roles at Dundas & Wilson, while around 20 jobs were at risk within CMS and its third party suppliers Integreon, Initial and Xerox. CMS confirmed at the time there would be no impact on any fee-earning roles.
In a joint statement today a spokesperson said: ‘There has been considerable work going on as we prepare for the combination of CMS with Dundas & Wilson on the 1 May. With any combination it is regrettably to be expected that there are some duplication of roles resulting in redundancy.
‘While there is no reduction in the number of lawyers, we can confirm that as we anticipated about 60 support roles have been made redundant with two thirds of those roles within Dundas & Wilson and one third within CMS and its third party suppliers.’
The move comes after CMS completed a redundancy programme in 2013 that cut 37 jobs across fee-earner and support roles.
Other firms to have made redundancies this year include Ince & Co and DWF, which, following a series of mergers, last month made 19 business services staff in its finance department redundant following the conclusion of a consultation which put 21 at risk in March.
Sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk
For more coverage of CMS see ‘Buy-side story: how CMS and Dundas & Wilson finalised their surprise merger’
