Big Four firm EY has announced further redundancies in its legal practice, marking yet another retreat from its ambitions to take a bigger slice of the sector.
The most recent round of redundancies, revealed today, could affect around 30 of the approximately 160 people employed by EY’s UK law business.
EY partners told the firm’s UK lawyers in a phone call on Tuesday that it was overhauling its legal business and launching a redundancy consultation, people with knowledge of the matter told the Financial Times.
A spokesperson for EY told the Gazette: ‘EY has put forward proposals to restructure the UK Law business, by focusing on strategic areas with greater alignment to the broader EY business and providing integrated services to our clients.
‘These proposals would continue to strengthen EY’s existing legal capabilities in corporate law, company secretarial, tax litigation and immigration but would, regrettably, result in a reduction of roles across other areas of the UK Law business. A consultation process is now underway with those impacted by these proposals.’
In recent years, most of the Big Four professional services firms have expanded their presence in the global legal services market. In 2023, it was revealed that EY was looking to triple its number of lawyers in the UK and Ireland over the following three years.
But EY, which entered the legal services market as an alternative business structure in 2014, subsequently announced the closure of the subsidiary EY Riverview Law, five years after its acquisition.
In January last year, the firm revealed that 24 employees from its UK financial services legal advisory business had become subject to a redundancy consultation. The decision followed a regular review of its resourcing needs, the firm said. It is understood that no trainee posts will be lost. ‘We will always seek to redeploy our people to other parts of the business where possible,’ a spokesperson said.
Globally, EY Law employs some 3,500 people, including 290 in the UK.
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