Thursday, November 26, 2009Walkers cuts Cayman Jobs

Cayman News ServiceWalkers cuts Cayman Jobs As A Result Of Economic Crises

One of the Cayman Islands’ largest offshore legal firms has confirmed that it has made a number of redundancies, including staff from the Cayman office. Walkers told CNS on Tuesday morning that, as a result of the global economic crisis, it has been forced to restructure the organisation, which has led to some job losses in all offices except for Singapore. “This economic crisis has severely affected a number of our clients, which, coupled with the targeting of offshore financial centres from the OECD and G20 countries, has resulted in a need to restructure the group as a whole,” the firm said.

Although Walkers would not confirm the exact number of job losses, CNS understands that around ten positions have been lost in Cayman. The firm did say that jobs have gone across a broad spectrum of departments and positions, and in Cayman the losses included work permit holders and Caymanians.

Walkers said that, with the exception of Singapore, all of the group's offices were involved in the restructuring process, which involved Walkers re-examining the situation to enable it to address the impact of the economic crisis in general. The firm said that it hoped there would be no further retrenchments required but that was dependent on what happens globally as well as locally and the kind of initiatives which emerge in offshore financial centres.

Walkers has seven offices in total, from London to Singapore -- the most recent office to open -- including the Cayman Islands office, which opened in 1964 when the firm was founded in this jurisdiction by William Walker. The firm has just completed a new iconic office building that will house the Cayman Islands team on Elgin Avenue. According to the website, the firm employs around 500 people across its seven locations

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