Jobs at risk as national firm announces department closures

A national firm has begun redundancy consultations with staff after announcing the closure of several departments.

As part of what it called a ‘strategic restructure to support continued growth’, Taylor Rose said it will consolidate operations around three divisions: property & private client, dispute resolution and corporate commercial.

That will result in the firm withdrawing from legal aid activity in both its family law and crime & extradition teams and closing its credit hire and costs teams. The personal injury team, which grew significantly when Taylor Rose merged with McMillan Williams in 2020, will also be consolidated.

The firm has said it will now enter a period of individual consultation with employees affected, although no redundancies have been made as yet. It has not yet responded to our question on how many people are impacted by the consultation. Some lawyers in the family and crime teams are expected to be retained to continue the growth of privately-funded work.

Taylor Rose said the changes are designed to simplify the business, increase profitability and drive long-term revenue growth.

Adrian Jaggard, chief executive of Taylor Rose and its parent AIIC Group, said: ‘We’ve made these decisions for the long-term benefit of the business, but of course, they’re not easy decisions to make.

‘I wish to thank all the individuals in the teams impacted for their service, and we will of course do everything we can to support any team members affected. Though change is never easy, the wider health of the business is very good and we are confident that the restructure will put us in an even stronger position to continue our growth. We will of course continue to invest in and support those areas that are central to our strategy.’

The firm, which started as Taylor Rose Law in 2009, has 600 employees and 650 consultants. According to its annual accounts for the year ended 30 September 2023, turnover increase by 9% to £83m but profit before tax more than halved to around £2.1m. The business took a £4m hit in November 2023 when its IT service provider was hit by a ransomware attack which disabled its services. The cyber attack affected several of the legal departments and meant that billing was down on expectations.

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