Law Firm Job Shedding Begins and Legal Sector M&A Grinds To a Halt (Australia / UK / USA)

Here are a few updates that have come in over the last 12 hours

AUSTRALIA

Hall & Wilcox -National firm confirms partner cuts, freeze on spending(Lawyers Weekly)

UK

Leeds Firm Walker Morris furloughs staff to conserve cash (Paywall @ The Lawyer)

Norton Rose Fulbright to revive four-day working week scheme. (Paywall @ The Lawyer)

Dentons Board Mulls Pay Cut For Europe Lawyers The firm’s leadership is expected to make a decision on cutting pay in April.(Law.com)

UK-Based Fieldfisher Tells Lawyers and Staff to Use 25% of Leave Before End of June(Law.com)

USA

Baker Donelson Cuts Pay Firmwide, Furloughs Employees (Law.com)

Cullen & Dykman –Law Firm Uses Furloughs, Layoffs, And Salary Cuts To Make It Through COVID-19 

Law.com Article…..SLOW DOWN – The COVID-19 pandemic is freezing law firm merger activity, David Thomas reports. Altman Weil tracked only 17 U.S. law firm merger announcements in the first quarter, a 37% drop from a year ago, and 11 of them came in January. Fairfax Associates, which measures finalized mergers rather than newly announced deals, tracked 21 mergers last quarter, four fewer than in 2019. Those deals that were reached well ahead of the spread of the virus.