The impact will be felt among current employees, with DWF anticipating the three office closures to result in 85 employees and 14 principal lawyers, who are partner equivalents, leaving the business.

Damien van Brunschot, who was unavailable to comment, will continue to lead DWF’s Australian business and will join the group’s executive board from 1 May.

“Management has continued to review operations and performance levels to ensure all locations align with the Group strategy,” the firm’s statement noted.

These changes outlined “will enable a leaner Australian business to focus on institutional clients and core sectors, such as insurance, which have a stronger strategic fit for the Group and offer the best opportunity for sustainable and profitable growth, by integrating other products and services provided by Mindcrest and Connected Services”, it said.

“While we expect an FY21 loss for the Australian operations of between £3m and £4m and some one-off non-underlying associated closure costs in FY21, these changes are anticipated to be earnings enhancing for the Group,” it said.

“Irrespective of the action being taken in Australia, the Group continues to see an improving financial performance for FY21 with Q3 trading building upon the positive revenue and profit trajectory reflected in the FY21 interim results. The Group expects FY21 performance to be at least in line with expectations.”

Commenting further, DWF’s chief executive Nigel Knowles noted the decision to cease operations of the three offices wasn't easy, however rationalising our Australian operations “is about focusing our investment resources on areas aligned to Group strategy and priority sectors and clients, something that we have done very successfully in Dubai and elsewhere”.

VIEW ALL

“I am confident that we will continue to grow our global operations in the future,” he said.

“Whilst we will part company with valued friends and colleagues in some locations, we retain a strong and respected team in Brisbane, with a renewed emphasis on our Insurance practice. We also retain Connected Services in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and will continue to bring our Mindcrest offering to this market. We remain committed to the Australian market, and wish our departing colleagues well as they transition their practices.

“As we approach our FY21 year end in April, we remain confident in our performance and have seen strong activity levels in our third quarter ending in January, and are enjoying a busy start to our fourth quarter. We therefore continue to view the future with confidence.”