Eversheds' staff costs dropped by £21m during 2009-10 on the back of headcount reductions at the firm, according to its recently-filed limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts.

During the last financial year the UK top 10 firm saw staff costs fall to £147m – a 12.5% drop on the previous year's figure of £168m, according to the filings with Companies House.

The drop in staff costs came alongside a 16% reduction in the average total number of staff to 2,651, down from the figure of 3,160 recorded in 2008-09.

In August 2010 Eversheds carried out its fifth redundancy round in two years, with approximately 100 jobs affected by the firm's decision to outsource back office functions to Accenture.

Breaking down the staff figures, total legal advisers fell by 223 to 1,581 during 2009-10, while administrative staff headcount dropped by 286 to 1,070 – a 21% fall on the 2008-09 total.

At the same time, the highest-paid member at the firm received £872,000 in 2009-10, a 43% increase on 2008-09′s top figure of £608,000.

Eversheds saw operating profit increase by 13.5% to £105m over the financial year, while cash at the bank and in hand rose by 43% to £41m, and the firm also reduced its overdraft from £3.4m to £727,000.

Overall turnover fell by 2.9% to £355m during the year. Geographically, both the UK and Europe saw drops in revenue, although turnover contributed by the firm's operations in the rest of the world more than doubled, with combined income rising from £4.6m in 2008-09 to £10.8m.

The firm attributed this in particular to Asia and its offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, which opened for business in 2009.

Eversheds chief executive Bryan Hughes (pictured) said: "We managed to keep our revenue close to the previous year and experienced growth, specifically in Asia.

"We have taken a lot of costs out of the business to manage our margins which accounts for an increase in operating profit. We are pleased with our cash position at the bank and have been managing our lock-up, making sure we convert our work in progress into bills for collection."