30/11/2025
Clifford Chance Cuts London Staff Citing AI Usage
This week’s key terms/concepts:
• Magic Circle: A coined term in the 1990s referring to five highly-prestigious law firms: A&O Shearman (formerly Allen & Overy), Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Freshfields and Slaughter & May.
• Back-office staff : The teams dealing with a company’s administrative and internal functions, typically relating to accounting and finance, HR, IT support and data management.
Magic Circle firm Clifford Chance revealed plans last month that roughly 10% of its back-office staff, which includes areas of finance, HR and IT, would be cut in its London office. The increasing usage of the firm’s AI tools, a reduced demand for business services, and the higher workload in Warsaw, Poland and Hyderabad, India were cited as the main factors behind the decision, with the firm stating that team structures could be revised as a result.
Why is this significant?
Although the redundancies aren’t expected to take effect before January, staff are reportedly surprised about the decision, as the firm’s strong financial performances as of late as well as a general scepticism of AI’s ability to replace their roles has rendered the decision as questionable. However, Clifford Chance believes that AI tools are now in a suitable position to complete tasks: the job cuts come as law firms are facing pressure from clients to eliminate time-consuming tasks and show cutting-edge developments in the law, through Harvey, Legora, or even their own in-house AI tools, and an early adaptation of team structures may be beneficial for their long-term AI project.
What does this mean for the legal sector?
The decision could be indicative of a larger trend, where the use of AI and technology in law firms is increasing, whilst workforces are seeing an adaptation to roles and team structures, as well as reductions in staff. Clifford Chance’s job cuts are not alone: earlier in the year, law firm BLCP made similar cuts of around 8% citing technology as one of the factors, and with more firms adopting AI into their practices, this may be a sign of more to come.
Lex Weekly 