Clifford Chance (CC) has seen its profits per equity partner (PEP) fall by 37%, dropping from £1.156m to £733,000.

The firm last week (1 July) became the first of the magic circle to announce preliminary results, reporting a 5% dip in turnover. Revenues for 2008-09 were £1.262m, down from £1.329m in 2007-08, with the weak pound softening the drop.

Currency fluctuation against the dollar and the euro means like-for-like revenues are expected to be down more than 10%. The relative fall in turnover was enough to end CC's reign as the largest law firm in the world in revenue terms (see story, right), a position it has held since its 1999 merger with US firm Rogers & Wells and Germany's Puender Volhard Weber & Axster.

London and the Middle East accounted for about 39% of turnover, down from some 42% last year. Continental and Eastern Europe brought in about 41% of revenues, while the US brought in 11% compared with 12%-13% in 2007-08. Asia brought in the remaining revenues.

Broken down by practice, corporate finance and litigation were the strongest performers.News of the drop in PEP follows a difficult year for the firm, in which it made staff and lawyer redundancies and carried out a restructuring of its partnership. The costs of the reduction are included in this year's results, but the firm declined to comment on precise figures.

In London the firm announced it was laying off around 80 lawyers, with up to 115 business support staff affected. There have also been cuts in the US.

The partnership restructuring, which is expected to result in a 15% drop in overall partner count in April 2010 compared with this year, did not affect results.