Clifford Chance Cuts 8 From UK Capital Markets Practice

By Erin Fuchs

Law360, New York (November 09, 2009) -- Clifford Chance LLP has cut eight fee earners from its capital markets practice in London, scaling back its ranks even further to meet decreased demand for legal services in an office where 80 attorney jobs were eliminated earlier this year.

Clifford Chance doesn't have plans for large-scale layoffs, according to firm spokeswoman Anna Ward, who confirmed the fee-earner cuts Monday.

“We can confirm that the firm is proposing to make redundant a small number of lawyers from the capital markets practice in the London office,” Ward said in an e-mail message. "There are no plans for a large-scale redundancy program."

The latest layoffs at Clifford Chance come after the firm announced a major restructuring program in January that eliminated 80 attorneys from offices in London. Clifford Chance also has reduced the number of lawyers in its Moscow office by 20 percent through layoffs and attrition.

The firm's U.S. offices also have seen job cuts amid the recession. In late March, Clifford Chance said 24 transactional associates in its New York office would be laid off because of the recession.

Clifford Chance also said in March that it was deferring the start dates for its incoming class of 50 law school graduates until 2010, saying they would be paid stipends during their furlough period.

The firm then said in May that 29 associate positions were under review in the litigation practice's New York office but that it hadn't yet determined how many associates would be laid off.

The outlook for the legal industry in the U.S. remains grim, with the U.S. Department of Labor reporting that 5,800 jobs were shed from the legal sector in October.

The October numbers were greatly increased from September's losses of 2,000 jobs, after adjusting to account for seasonal changes in unemployment patterns.

Summer associate programs typically end in September, leading to a higher than usual decline in that month. BigLaw certainly felt the economic pain in October, with some firms commencing their second and third rounds of layoffs.

Clifford Chance has made other major changes in its U.S. offices in addition to layoffs. The firm announced in May that it planned to prioritize more successful practice areas and that global litigation head Mark Kirsch was leaving.

A source at the firm said in May that the U.S. litigation practice would shift its priorities to the areas where clients are increasingly using Clifford Chance — namely, regulatory investigations and white collar, antitrust and commercial litigation and arbitration — with an emphasis on cross-border matters.

Clifford Chance spokesman Mike Kachel said in May that Kirsch had decided to step down as the leader of both the U.S. and global areas in the litigation and dispute resolution practices.

Kirsch served as Clifford Chance's U.S. practice area leader for five years and assumed the position as the firm's global leader in early 2008. He previously was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, according to the firm.

--Additional reporting by Leigh Kamping-Carder, Jessica Dye, Anne Urda, Jacqueline Bell, Ryan Davis and Elaine Meyer