DLA Piper is to make a further 140 job cuts in the UK as it launches a second round of redundancies.

The firm, which axed 15 lawyers and 16 support staff last year, said the latest round of cuts would affect around 30 lawyers and 110 support positions across its eight UK offices.

The cuts will focus on the transactional teams in real estate, finance and corporate.

Sir Nigel Knowles, joint CEO of DLA Piper, said: “Having carefully considered current volumes of business activity and the predicted impact of the ongoing downturn we are conducting a formal redundancy consultation process in the UK which is likely to result in up to 140 redundancies.”

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The redundancies will not affect trainees although the firm said it is considering asking some new hires to defer their training contracts from September 2009 until 2010.

A spokeswoman for the firm said that no partners were involved in the redundancy process although some had already left as a direct result of market conditions.

She added that other partners had joined expanding practices and the overall numbers were constant.

Sir Nigel added: "This is a difficult but necessary decision based on our reassessment of resource levels following the continuing deterioration of the market. This prudent action will align our capacity levels with existing client demands."

Yesterday, Lovells said it launching a redundancy programme that could see up to 94 staff cuts.

Other firms to have announced plans to cut staff in recent weeks include Clifford Chance, Eversheds and Linklaters.

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