Lovells today became the latest major City law firm to announce plans to cut staff, with 94 jobs at risk.

Eighteen fee-earning lawyers and six professional support lawyers face the axe in addition to 43 general support staff and 27 PAs. A formal 30-day consultation will begin in the next few days.

Lovells said the lawyer cuts would occur in practice areas "most directly affected the economic downturn” but declined to name departments at risk.

The firm, which last week won a role advising the trustee of the Bernard Madoff bankruptcy on European issues, said its dispute resolution, restructuring, IP and pensions areas would not be affected.

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Professional support lawyers, support staff and PAs across all departments would be involved in the consultation but trainees are exempt.

David Harris, Lovells managing partner, said: “Whilst overall performance levels across the firm have so far been reasonably good considering the economic environment, the continued uncertainty means that we need to take additional measures to manage our capacity levels and overall cost base.”

The consultation is restricted to employees of the firm and so partners are not affected. Lovells said its existing process of evaluating partners’ performance was ongoing with “nothing out of the ordinary” planned.

Lovells joins other major City law firms including Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Eversheds, Freshfields and DLA Piper who have either made cuts or begun redundancy consultations in recent weeks.

Some firms including Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Ashurst and Addleshaw Goddard have announced plans to reduce the size of their partnerships.

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