Jul

15

Rolling Sabbatical

July 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The news that CMS Cameron McKenna has put its entire corporate department on a rolling sabbatical programme and that Travers Smith have offered a sabbatical scheme for staff in its real estate and corporate groups are both moves clearly aimed at cutting overheads in the short-term, particularly in what will possibly be a quiet corporate market during the summer.

At Camerons, all lawyers apart from Partners will take a six week break with four weeks on 30% pay and two weeks unpaid. The scheme will be staggered so that there are assistants working in the department throughout the period.

The Travers scheme meanwhile is voluntary with staff being allowed to take up to two months on 20 % salary thus far 14 members of staff, of which not all are lawyers, have taken the offer.

Whilst these type of schemes are by no means commonplace it is worth noting that Norton Rose introduced a flexible working scheme in April across a number of groups and Hammonds has introduced enforced two month sabbaticals for corporate associates.

With overheads in mind therefore the firms are clearly looking at their fixed costs primarily their wages bills and how they can structure themselves to maintain the level of service to their clients whilst retaining their profitability.

One possible outcome will be the increasing use of contract resources at all levels by the firms on any given deal, this has certainly been borne out by the increasing interest ItsMyLaw has had for its services.


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