Dain Bosworth cuts staff at its new firm.

CHICAGO -- Dain Bosworth Inc. late last week pared the staff at its recently acquired Clayton Brown & Associates firm in Chicago, laying off 25 to 30 employees including three public finance professionals.

Most of the layoffs occurred in the back-office operations of Clayton Brown, which was purchased by Minneapolis-based Dain Bosworth in October, and had been announced previously as a consolidating move, according to Jennifer Driscoll, a Dain Bosworth spokeswoman.

However, the layoffs of James Harvitt, Frank Paul, and Asim Khan in public finance were due to "a continuing deterioration in business conditions," Driscoll said.

The move leaves the former Clayton Brown headquarters with three investment bankers, she said. Two bankers were let go earlier this fall, also due to business conditions.

"We're continuing to evaluate staffing needs," Driscoll said, adding that further layoffs would depend on business conditions in the future.

Driscoll also said the firm has been experiencing some selective cuts and attrition in the fixed-income operations of its other offices.

Dain Bosworth has already shut down Clayton Brown offices in Dallas; Tallahassee, Fla.; and Bloomington Hills, Mich. It sold Clayton Brown's Milwaukee office to Chicago-based Griffin, Kubik, Stephens & Thompson Inc., and transferred a Miami office to Rauscher Pierce Refsnes Inc.

The fate of back-office employees at Clayton Brown became known in September, when Dain Bosworth officials said many jobs would be eliminated because the firm was moving the bulk of that work to a clearing subsidiary of its parent company, Inter-Regional Financial Group.

Driscoll said the "synergy" between Dain Bosworth and Clayton Brown, which officially adopted the Dain Bosworth name on Nov. 14, "is already becoming apparent."

"We've got a very powerful sales organization," she said.

Dain Bosworth officials have said the acquisition was expected to result in a fixed-income sales force of 88 people in six cities and 15 traders in three cities.

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