DLA Piper to cut 29 jobs at Sheffield city centre office

DLA Piper, based at 1 St Paul’s Place in the city centre, plans to start speaking to staff about redundancies this month.

The firm is in the office next door to the Department for Businesses, Innovation and Skills, where 247 jobs are to go.

DLA Piper chief operating officer Andrew Darwin said the job losses were as a result of modernisation and a successful pilot of shared services with an office in Warsaw.

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“The firm has grown rapidly over the past decade and many of our systems and processes reflect the history of the firm rather than its future,” he said.

“It is a key part of our strategy to modernize our business service functions in order to operate more effectively on a global basis and improve the quality, consistency and efficiency of the way we deliver our services to our clients.

“Following a comprehensive review of the firm’s operations, and the successful pilot of a global shared services centre in Warsaw, we have begun a period of consultation in the UK that will consider the possible reduction in size of our IT, finance, HR, marketing and BD, and secretarial teams.

“Until the consultation is completed, we will not be making any final decisions, and we will be actively supporting our people during this process.”

A further 56 jobs will go at DLA Piper’s Leeds office. A consultation process will begin on May 31 and run until July.