Allens Arthur Robinson recently confirmed that 114 staff had opted for its voluntary redundancy program.

A spokesperson from the firm said that the redundancies were across a range of practice areas, but about one third of them were lawyers, another third were from corporate services and the remainder were legal secretaries.

According to the firm, some of them are taking early retirement or a career break, while others are opting to start new businesses or study. Slowing workflow was not mentioned. "It was structured as a quite generous program," the spokesman said. "The feedback we've had from people was basically that this made them think about their next step, as opposed to people not having enough work to do."

Related stories

100 Allens staff volunteer for redundancy - Approximately 100 Allens Arthur Robinson staff have opted for the voluntary redundancy program

Staff "relieved" at Allens Arthur Robinson salary freeze - It could have been worse. That seems to be the prevailing sentiment at Allens Arthur Robinson following revelations that the firm intends to freeze salaries and offer voluntary redundancies