Troubled Silicon Valley firm Cooley Godward has launched another round of lawyer lay-offs in its continuing bid to cope with California's battered tech economy – bringing to 56 the number of staff the firm has axed this month.

The Palo Alto-based firm this week confirmed that it was to lay off 27 associates and 19 paralegals and support staff.

In a memo sent to staff, Cooleys chairman Stephen Neal said: "With no sure way of predicting when the economy will rebound, we are compelled to undertake these efforts to continue to shape and balance the firm so that our capacity meets the demands we can reasonably foresee."

The news follows the announcement earlier this month that an office site belonging to the firm's key Menlo Park branch was to be closed.

It was Cooleys that became the first major US firm to announce heavy cuts to its workforce in 2001, when it made 85 associates and 50 paralegals redundant.

The cuts come amid widespread expectations that the 500-lawyer Cooleys is still hunting for a merger partner to help stabilise the firm and widen its practice base, despite the recent failure of its talks with New York IP specialist Pennie & Edmonds.