Clifford Chance has confirmed it will cut business services roles in London, with up to 50 jobs potentially affected, according to a report by the Financial Times, around 10% of its back office staff in the city.
A further 35 employees could see the scope of their roles change, according to the FT, with greater use of AI among the factors driving the change, alongside reduced demand for some business services and more work being done in hubs in India and Poland, where Clifford Chance opened an operations hub last year in Warsaw.
A firm spokesperson told GLP: “In line with our strategy to strengthen our operations, we can confirm we are proposing changes to some of our London-based business professional functions. The proposed changes could see the creation of new roles, changes to the scope of roles, revised team structures and in some cases a reduction in roles.”
The move follows a strong financial performance by the firm last year, when revenue grew 9% to £2.4bn and profit per equity partner hit £2.1m, and underscores the pressure law firms face to maximise efficiency in the face of rising costs and stiff competition from rivals.
Firms are also facing expectations from clients to use AI to deliver faster, more cost-effective services, with some 8% of clients specifying in their tender documents that law firms use generative AI, according to a report published in April by Thomson Reuters.
Leading law firms are stacking their teams with AI specialists, Thomson Reuters reported, with 45% of the top 20 UK firms now boasting a head of AI, up from 35% a year ago. More than three-quarters also have their own in-house teams driving AI transformation – again up from 60% last year.
Large firms have turned to legal AI specialists such as Legora and Harvey in droves for support in document review, due diligence, drafting and market research. Others have developed their own AI tools in-house, including Clifford Chance, which became one of the first to do so when it rolled out Clifford Chance Assist in 2023.
The firm is not alone in making redundancies this year – BCLP cut around 8% of its global business services roles in May, citing the need to streamline operations and changing client needs.
In April, DWF also confirmed it had launched a redundancy consultation for more than 100 lawyers and staff, shortly after Pinsent Masons said it would cut a significant portion of its team in Germany and CMS culled 15 roles from its real estate transactions practice in London, in its second redundancy round in 18 months.
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