Dechert's LLP accounts have revealed that the firm's UK office saw a £9m drop in fee income during 2008, against a slight increase in turnover for its international network.

Over the year the international firm's London base brought in £21.1m in fee income, a decrease on the office's 2007 performance of £30.5m.

The firm said the drop in fee income for its UK business was due to a decrease in the number of clients doing business in the region.

Fee income for the firm's international network of offices stood at £27.4m in 2008, marginally up from 2007 when the firm took in £26.8m in turnover.

The accounts also show that Dechert's highest-paid member took home £3.01m in 2008, a similar figure to that seen in 2007.

During 2008, the firm's UK partnership paid in £4.4m into the firm's business after injecting £3.4m in 2007. The firm said that every office in its network pays a sum of money back into the business for services that the US provides, with each office paying a separate amount dependent on number of lawyers.

Staff numbers remained relatively stable between the two years, as did staff costs, with the firm paying out a total of £14.1m in wages to its UK staff in 2008.