Exclusive: Parabis makes 24 redundancies to Croydon office

Cogent Law, the claimant arm of the Parabis Law Group, is to wind-up its Croydon-based pre-litigation department, leading to redundancies for 24 employees.

Following a 40-day consultation, Parabis has also decided to close its Bristol and Colchester offices in a decision set to affect 41 members of the legal and administrative support staff department, 23 of which sit in the Bristol office and 18 in Colchester.

The recent cuts follow Parabis' partnership with Direct Line Group which obtained authorisation from the SRA to become an alternative business structure (ABS) at the beginning of the year. In 2013, Parabis also entered into an ABS joint venture with over-50s specialist Saga.

Parabis has also witnessed a spate of mergers in recent years, including subsidiary Plexus Law's merger with fellow defendant insurance firm Greenwoods Solicitors in May 2013.

A spokesperson for Parabis told SJ: "Over the past year more than 75 per cent of Cogent Law's claimant activities have transferred to two insurer-led ABSs in which Parabis is a partner. The remaining run-off work has been handled from two locations.

"That work is now coming to a natural end, and in the absence of new work being generated, it has been decided to concentrate claimant activities in our Leeds office. As a result there will be a phased programme of redundancies over the next five months affecting 24 fee earners in Cogent's Croydon office."

Reports suggest the firm is looking to open an additional base in South Africa, to sit alongside its existing office in Pretoria which has been in operation for the last four years.

SJ asked the Parabis spokesperson whether the redundancies in the Croydon office was designed to outsource work to Pretoria but was told that the current redundancies "had nothing to do with South Africa".

A source has informed SJ that ten staff members left the Croydon office on the 17 October.

John van der Luit-Drummond is legal reporter for Solicitors Journal