eFinancialCareers

Employment lawyers look set to cash in on bankers' woes.

"I've already had a few calls from traders who have lost their jobs," confesses Charles Ferguson of Ferguson Solicitors. "They're mostly CDO traders who feel they've been treated unfairly. Sometimes banks try to raise issues of competence or claim employees have breached internal regulations so that they can fire them as bad leavers. This has serious implications for someone's ability to find a new role, and means they lose their right to any shares they've accumulated."

A similar phenomenon seems to be at work on the other side of the Atlantic. The New York Post quotes 'Bill Singer', a securities industry lawyer, who reportedly saw the number of calls from distressed fixed income traders rise fivefold during August to more than 30. Most were reportedly seeking to clarify their rights on areas such as bonuses, deferred compensation and contracts.

Back in the UK, banks have a nasty habit of including clauses in contracts that absolve them from paying bonuses if someone is no longer in employment, or on their notice period, on the bonus payment date – and then making that person redundant as the date approaches. The bad news is that following a judgment last year, Ferguson says employees subject to such behaviour have little legal recourse.

Not everyone thinks banks are liable to abuse ex-employees, however. Steven Lorber, employment partner at Lewis Silkin, says most bankers who've lost their jobs come to them for one reason – "They want to do a deal. Banks make them a generous offer, and they accept."