Clifford Chance cuts 10% of London back-office roles, citing increased AI usage

Clifford Chance is preparing to cut about 10% of its London back-office staff citing AI and lower demand for support services, according to a report by the Financial Times.

The job review includes cutting about 50 roles and changing the scope for 35 roles. Around 550 staff across support functions including IT, HR and finance were informed of the plan for redundancies.

Shift to lower cost hubs

The FT also reported that the firm is moving more work to its hubs in Poland and India after opening a new operations centre in Warsaw last year. Clifford Chance already has a support hub in Newcastle and is continuing to push more tasks into these lower cost teams.

Clifford Chance responds

In a statement shared with Non-Billable, a Clifford Chance spokesperson said: "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."

Wider market trend

Other firms have made similar moves this year. DWF kicked off a redundancy consultation across several business services teams in the spring, and BCLP also reduced 8% roles in its global support functions earlier this year, citing increased tech adoption as one of the reasons.