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KPMG cuts legal division, 30 jobs in major restructure
The big four firm has announced a restructure of its legal business less than a month after its $80 million consulting restructure.
Christine Chen
KPMG plans to cut 30 jobs as part of a restructure of its legal business that will see the big four firm’s commercial law practice close and its remaining legal services folded into other divisions.
Tax and legal managing partner Ben Travers said the restructure would allow the firm to “play to its strengths”.
“Our strategy is focused on playing to our strengths and prioritising investment into areas which align to KPMG’s broader growth strategy and markets,” he said.
The firm told Accountants Daily, a sister brand of Lawyers Weekly, that it had not yet finalised the changes but estimated “around” 30 jobs would be cut.
The restructure was subject to a consultation process and would be effective from 30 September, it said.
Rather than continuing to invest in a commercial law practice, Travers said the firm would instead look to use “alliance relationships” with law firms that offered complementary services.
It marks KPMG’s second restructure in a month after it announced an overhaul of its consulting division in mid-June.
It said around 200 senior consulting staff would be cut from the firm to save $80 million in costs it would redirect to high-demand advisory work focusing on technology and AI.
The legal restructure, announced to staff on Tuesday, would also involve the firm focusing on in-demand tax services, with plans to “actively expand” tax controversy offerings to make it into a market leader.
“We believe focusing on tax and tax controversy services, and extending alliance relationships will enable clients to better leverage broader capabilities to solve their issues,” he said.
“We have an ambition to be Australia’s leading firm in Tax and Tax Controversy & Disputes.”
“We’re rapidly hiring in this area and have promoted or appointed seven new partners and 21 new directors recently. The promotions were effective from this month and the external hires are all starting in the next few months.”
KPMG would also be investing in technology such as generative AI tool KymTax, which it said would “transform the way we deliver tax services and offer our clients benefits in speed and assurance of services”.
It comes as the big four cope with a downturn in client demand and increased scrutiny from the PwC tax leaks scandal.
During a parliamentary hearing in May, experts told lawmakers that abuse of legal professional privilege would continue as long as the big four firms operated their own law firms.
PwC in March culled 329 staff and 37 partners and EY reduced its headcount by 100 in April. Deloitte also announced an overhaul of its global operations in March, although it said only a “small number of redundancies” were made in Australia.
