The 15 partners on Clifford Chance's (CC's) management committee shared £11.8m between them in 2008-09, a third less than they earned the previous year.

The figure is contained within the firm's limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts, which were recently filed with Companies House.

According to the accounts, the total remuneration of the 15 partners on the committee fell by 33% to £11.8m, compared with £17.9m the previous year.

Details of the drop in the management group's remuneration, which does not include the pay for chief financial officer Stephen Purse and chief operating officer Amanda Burton, comes after CC saw revenues decrease by 5% to £1.26bn, while profits per equity partner fell by 36.6% to £733,000.

The accounts also show that CC spent £59m during the last financial year on its restructuring and redundancy programme, which saw the firm cut 15% of its global partnership and lay off a number of lawyers and support staff. The lion's share – £53m – of the costs went on the partnership restructuring, with the staff restructuring costing £6m.

Total staff costs increased for the year increased to £576m, up from £541m in 2007-08.

The firm's net cash, which had been built up in expectation of the economic difficulties, dropped by £5.6m to £66.2m. Details of the additional capital increase from partners in November 2008 is also contained within the accounts, with the firm boosting capital by a total of £60.7m.

CC's European practice outperformed its combined UK and Gulf practice last year, accounting for 41% of total revenues compared to 40% for the UK and Gulf. Last year the UK and Gulf practice accounted for 42% of revenues against 37% for Europe.

Clifford Chance on the Legal Week Wiki