Knights plc is infamous for acquiring firms and then shedding their business services staff, but now its lawyers say they are also seeing its ruthless streak.
Sources told RollOnFriday a number of senior associates, partners and paralegals have been unceremoniously axed from its Leeds office.
“We were individually pulled into meetings and given the news, then told to hand in our laptops/badges and leave”, said a lawyer in one team which has lost three paralegals and a partner.
“The whole experience was completely impersonal, and one of the managers in the meeting kept their head down the entire time and barely made eye contact”.
“Even email/teams access to was disabled before we had the opportunity to say goodbye to colleagues.”
An insider said the redundancies were made “on the back of an anticipated influx of work not coming to fruition”.
“Management had reassured the team that Knights would be able to financially ride out the temporary lower volumes at work and that they were confident the work would come in”.
Rubbing salt in the wound, “On top of this, the CEO David Beech has recently been posting on LinkedIn about the ‘strength of the regional markets’”, said a source.
“They keep driving prices/fees up, but there simply isn’t the volume of work at that level to support the staff at the firm”, they added.
The pitiless approach shouldn’t come as a surprise to staff at Knights, a former Golden Turd where brutal economics are its modus operandi.
In 2020, 100 Leeds staff were put at risk of redundancy when Knights bought Shulmans to gain a foothold in the city. Knights moved to swish premises in the former Majestic nightclub the following year.
In 2023 the HR Managers who handled the axings were themselves axed, and last year 65 more business services staff were booted when Colchester-based Birkett Long sold their firm to Knights for £16m. Birkett Long’s former managing partner said he was “appalled” at his ex-colleagues for betraying non-fee-earners in exchange for the windfall.
But its merciless approach has paid off for the PLC: its share price has kept relatively steady after falling off a cliff in 2020, indicating that the market will continue to tolerate Knights so long as it makes regular sacrifices.
Knights declined to comment.
https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/exclusive-knights-axes-lawyers-impersonal-layoffs
