Mayer Brown to cut 55 lawyers, staff

Mayer Brown LLP, the Chicago-based firm of 1,800 lawyers, plans to cut 55 employees in its London office, including both lawyers and support staff.

The firings are part of an "ongoing review" of global operations, the firm said in a statement today. The firm is also freezing pay for junior attorneys and staff in London and asking U.K. trainees due to start in September 2010 to defer their arrival, according to Mayer Brown spokesman Robert Harris.

Harris declined to comment further on the cuts.

In the first three months of 2009, many of the largest U.S. law firms fired junior attorneys and staff in response to the decline in the legal market, including New York-based Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, San Francisco-based Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and Los Angeles-based Latham & Watkins LLP.

In November, Mayer Brown cut 33 lawyers, citing the global financial crisis.