Law firms in Australia made a number of redundancies in 2009. Lawyers Weekly looks back on a year and the staffing decisions that many firms would rather forget.

At the start of this year the official unemployment rate was 4.6 per cent. This figure climbed to a peak of 5.9 per cent in July, and has eased off only marginally in recent months. Redundancies have been a fact of business life for many organisations, with most layoffs occurring in the first half of the year.

Law firms were not immune to the effects of the global financial crisis. As work dried up in a number of practice areas, firms took a selective approach in trimming ranks through both voluntary and forced redundancies.

Allens Arthur Robinson had the largest voluntary redundancy program in the Australian legal market, with 114 staff putting up their hands for redundancy.

A further dozen people had asked for redundancies but were refused because they worked in essential services.

A media spokesperson for the firm told Lawyers Weekly that a broad range of people had taken up the voluntary redundancy offer - including secretaries, corporate services staff and lawyers. The firm announced the voluntary redundancy program in April and it ended 26 June.

Mallesons Stephen Jaques refused to reveal how many staff took a voluntary redundancy in the program announced in July, but the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported that insiders had put the figure at 110 and that additional volunteers were turned down due to the generous nature of the payout, which included leave entitlements, notice periods and about a month for each year of service.

A spokesperson for the firm said the report in the AFR was "speculative" and would not comment on numbers. "I can confirm the program has been completed and we are happy with the way it was received by staff. We were open about our expectations for the voluntary redundancy program when it was launched and we have achieved our objectives," the firm's spokesperson said.

When announcing the program, chief executive partner Robert Milliner told staff he expected about 100 staff to take up the offer, which amounted to about 5 per cent of Mallesons' entire staff base.

Minter Ellison made 35 staff members redundant, including 11 lawyers, in response to a softening in demand for legal services in some areas, said chief executive partner John Weber.

From Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, a total of eight lawyers and 20 support staff were let go, while the Adelaide office made three lawyers and four support staff redundant. Lawyers from the property, construction and finance practice areas in senior associate to junior positions were affected, but reductions did not impact on the graduate program.

Blake Dawson made 89 staff members redundant following a business review earlier in the year. The employee cutbacks consisted of 23 lawyers and 66 support staff.

The firm would not reveal which practice areas had been affected, but denied rumours that 20 per cent of the corporate team across all offices was made redundant.

Clayton Utz chief executive partner David Fagan confirmed with Lawyers Weekly that redundancies have been made at the firm but said there was no redundancy program in place and that staff cuts have not increased compared with previous years.

Fagan could not confirm the exact number of staff affected but said some graduate lawyers had been "counselled out for performance reasons".

"Our priority has been to maintain jobs and so we've adopted a policy of - absolutely where we can - [saving] positions, but in some regrettable cases people have been made redundant. But no more than you would have seen in 2006 or 2007 or any other year," he said.

In responding to the economic downturn, Freehills put a salary freeze in place and options for flexible work were extended. Chief managing partner Gavin Bell told Lawyers Weekly that the firm was travelling well - with revenue close to where it was at this time last year - and that the measures were taken to ultimately protect the firm from further fallout from the crisis.

A number of mid-tier and other firms also put redundancy programs in place. Gadens refused to respond to rumours about redundancies at the firm when approached by Lawyers Weekly, with a spokesperson indicating only that there were "some comings and goings".

Lawyers Weekly was tipped off that some redundancies had occurred in Gadens' Sydney office, including positions as high as senior associate.

TressCox Lawyers confirmed that redundancies have been made at the firm in response to the global financial crisis. The firm would not comment on rumours that at least a dozen employees had been made redundant, including junior lawyers in the M&A group.

Thomson Playford Cutlers also confirmed that a number of lawyers and support staff were made redundant. "This was a regrettable but unavoidable decision - given the difficult economic conditions and the flow-on impact on the demand for legal services," said Brett Goodridge, chief executive of Thomson Playford Cutlers.

Herbert Geer refused to comment when contacted by Lawyers Weekly about specific rumours that the firm had made corporate lawyers from their Brisbane and Melbourne offices redundant.

However, a spokesperson for the firm said it had made "two or three" people redundant and that "we, as do all businesses, have redundancies from time to time". The spokesperson added that there was no plan for general redundancies at the firm.

Hicksons Lawyers confirmed that eight of its staff had been made redundant. A spokesperson for the firm said: "Unfortunately, we had to let eight staff go from across the firm and, as we know, retrenchments are common across the industry at present".

HWL Ebsworth Lawyers confirmed that 17 staff members have been made redundant since December 2008, but the firm has hired 55 new staff members nationally in the same period.

DLA Phillips Fox also confirmed that 20 lawyers and 26 support staff were made redundant in May - the firm's second round of cuts, with 12 lawyers - largely from the firm's New Zealand offices - having been shown the door in November last year.

Other firms, including Deacons and Corrs Chambers Westgarth, laid off staff in late 2008.