DLA Piper NZ Cuts Partner Drawings And Pay, But Avoids Redundancies

DLA Piper’s New Zealand office has cut partner drawings and staff pay by up to 30 percent but avoided making redundancies, as the firm joins others in its battle to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

As LawFuel recently reported on moves by global law firms to cut drawings and pay during the ‘coronapocalypse’, the moves are hardly unusual although there is little reporting on what other New Zealand law firms are doing to reduce overheads.

US law firms like Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Reed Smith have come under greater financial pressure than UK law firms like Allen & Overy and DLA Piper, the Financial Times reported. However the situation is very much a ‘reducing feast’ as firms continue to assess their financial situation.

DLA Piper New Zealand, part of the global network across 40 countries, has over 100 staff across its two offices and was one of the major law firms that did not take the government’s pay subsidy which six of the major firms did take, before returning the funds to the government amid considerable publicity.