Members of the 55-strong claimant personal injury team at London law firm KSB Law are facing up to possible redundancy after the firm decided to close the department.

Following a strategic review, KSB is to concentrate on its core, commercial, property, private client and international practice areas.

Chief executive Mark Feeney added that the personal injury market 'is looking uncertain', arguing that 'doing it in central London makes less and less sense'.

The team is made up of three partners, seven solicitors and a further 15 to 20 fee-earners.

The rest are support staff.

Mr Feeney said the firm investigated several options for the team's future, including spinning it off into a separate practice, 'but in the end this was the right commercial decision for us to take'.

KSB will continue to act on its existing workload, but will not take on any new cases, with a view to the department largely closing by June 2004.

Mr Feeney said KSB was trying to find positions for people both within the firm and elsewhere, but there was a risk of redundancy for staff both this December and next June.

Earlier this year, north London firm Bolt Burdon spun off its claimant personal injury practice into a separate firm on the grounds that the gap between personal injury and other types of work has widened so much.

Neil Rose