These are turbulent times for Clifford Chance (CC), which this year lost its long-held title as the world's largest law firm by revenue after the firm was overtaken by Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Revenue fell 5% to £1.26bn and profits per equity partner fell 37% from £1.15m to £733,000, the sharpest fall among its peer group.

There were early indications of the strain on the business on 14 October when the firm announced it was to lay off 20 litigators in the US – a surprise move for a practice the firm had spent much time building.

This was soon put into the shade in January when the firm announced a substantial redundancy programme affecting UK lawyers, the first top firm to make such a move in recent memory. By the end of the process, CC is set to shed around 350 lawyers and support staff globally.

In February, management launched a firm-wide review of the size and shape of its partnership, which is set to cut 15% of the firm's partners. New York and London have taken the largest proportion of the cuts.

On a more positive note, CC continued to expand its practice in a number of touted emerging economies, launching an office in Kiev and merging with Romanian firm Badea & Asociatii, as well as winning a licence to independently practise local law in Singapore.

High hopes are invested in its 'best friend' alliance with well-regarded Indian firm AZB and Partners, which was secured in January, and the firm also cites a strong 12 months for its China practice.

Major mandates of the year included acting on the merger between InBev and Anheuser-Busch, the sale of British Energy and a string of crisis-related instructions for Barclays.

Managing partner David Childs is frank about the challenges: "It has been a very tough year. Although the financial crisis started in July 2007, we didn't foresee it getting as bad as it did. Activity before September last year was in line with what we were expecting."

Clifford Chance on the Legal Week Wiki