Magic circle firm Clifford Chance will report a 5% fall in revenue and profits ‘significantly down’ on last year’s £1.33bn, according to the firm’s global managing partner David Childs. He said the firm will cut around 15% of its equity partners at the end of its ongoing staff restructuring.

Childs’ estimates on revenue and profits are the first to come from a magic circle firm this year. He was speaking at the Global Managing Partners Summit 2009 in London yesterday.

He said of the expected partner cuts: ‘When Lehman [Brothers, the collapsed US investment bank] went bust, it became a different ball game. The firm was simply becoming too big for the supply of business.’

Childs said that all of Clifford Chance’s offices have experienced the effects of the downturn.

A full report on the summit will be published in the Gazette and see the Gazette website on Thursday 11 June.