Irwin Mitchell is set to scrap its litigation assistant role following a review of its legal support team, in a move affecting 58 staff across the UK.
The decision, first reported by RollonFriday and confirmed by Irwin Mitchell today (14 November), will see the work redeployed across team PAs and an expanded team of paralegals.
In a statement Irwin Mitchell said: ‘We’re proposing to evolve our Litigation Assistant role into a Team PA role, moving some of the billable tasks to paralegals and planning to increase our paralegal headcount. This will improve the experience for our clients, provide clarity and consistency across roles, and provide the best legal support structure in future.
‘We’re committed to supporting our colleagues through any change and will continue to listen and respond to feedback through the ongoing consultations with those affected.’
Those affected are able to apply for team PA or paralegal roles and the firm said there may be other redeployment opportunities available. According to RollonFriday, those affected have entered a seven week consultation period, having been told about the decision last month.
The news makes Irwin Mitchell the latest in a string of firms looking to restructure their legal or professional support functions as they adapt to a shifting technological landscape.
Last week Fieldfisher confirmed that it was in a consultation with staff as it begins to ‘transform the Belfast office into a Business Services Centre.’ The move could see a number of professional services staff given the option of relocating to Belfast .
A Fieldfisher spokesperson said: ‘Like any business, we regularly review how we work so we can remain competitive and sustainable for the future […] We are open to an office move or expansion to accommodate our Belfast office growth in the future. If and when that happens, we will let you know.’
In September, Freshfields announced that up to 19 paralegal roles were set to be made redundant in its Manchester office, citing the need for the ‘business to keep pace with a fast-changing legal market.’
The firm’s statement at the time added: ‘We have communicated with our colleagues affected by these proposals and are focused on supporting our teams throughout.’
Other firms to have announced job cuts this year include BCLP, which this May said it was undertaking a ‘business modernisation programme’ that would impact approximately 8% of its global business services population, while in April, DWF conducted a consultation with 108 employees in in its commercial services and central services divisions.
In January, CMS placed up to 15 junior roles in its London real estate team under review, while DLA Piper restructured its UK IT team at the start of the year after switching to a fully cloud-based operating model.
Advances in technology – in particular the rise of AI – have meant that routine work, including some of the work carried out by paralegals or business services stuff, has come under scrutiny.
Efficiency and a focus on giving lawyers more time to work on complex matters are generally touted as the main benefits of AI for law firms, with high-volume, document-heavy workflows such as contract review, due diligence and regulatory checks now a less time-consuming proposition.
The latest LB100 shows firms, with an insurance focus, such as Irwin Mitchell, underperformed compared to the rest of the table – a marked change from the previous year.
Irwin Mitchell’s most recent financial results saw revenue increase by 8.2%, to £329.3m, with profit before tax growing by more than 13%.
This growth outpaced many insurance-heavy peers in the LB100, with the average growth across these firms standing at 3.6%, significantly down on the average of 9.6% across the LB100 as a whole.
