A London partner at a US law firm who branded Liverpool FC supporters ‘Scouse scum’ in a filmed interview has had his partnership terminated by the firm.

In a message posted on YouTube, Goldberg Segalla managing partner Rick Cohen said Chelsea fan Clive O’Connell’s comments were ‘entirely inconsistent’ with the firm’s ethos.

O’Connell was interviewed by a sports website following a match last month which Chelsea lost 3-1. During the interview, which was posted online, O’Connell (pictured right) called Liverpool fans ‘Scouse scum’.

O’Connell has since apologised, but the firm acted this morning by removing him and confirming its actions through a statement posted on YouTube.

Cohen said: ‘His conduct doesn’t rise to the standards to which we hold ourselves and for these reasons we have terminated our partnership with Mr O’Connell, effective immediately.

‘We are extremely proud of the respectful and giving culture that we worked hard to build and we’re committed to maintaining it for ourselves, for our clients and for our communities of which we’re part.’

Cohen said he personally recruits every lawyer in every office of the firm and tells each new recruit they must be ‘better human beings’ than they are lawyers.

He added: ‘Our core values require that anyone affiliated with this firm demonstrates respect for their clients, the courts, colleagues and our communities.

‘Respect, tolerance, kindness, diversity, charity; they aren’t mere words or amorphous concepts to us.’

Before his termination, Goldberg Segalla’s website had hailed O’Connell as ‘one of the world’s leading insurance and reinsurance legal professionals’.

O’Connell had apologised for his comments after the game and said he had supported Chelsea since he was a child and felt ‘passionately about the team’.

He told the London Evening Standard: ‘I was very disappointed in the aftermath of Saturday’s game.

‘I let my emotions get the better of me. I clearly regret this and any offence that I may have caused by my hot-headed and regrettable reaction, which was inappropriate whether or not caught on camera.’