Nomura and Barclays Capital have both confirmed that they have made a number of redundancies in their UK legal teams.

Nomura made between six and eight redundancies in London over the summer in a redundancy consultation overseen by European general counsel Piers Le Marchant.

The redundancies mark the Japanese bank's third round of legal job cuts since its takeover of Lehman Brothers' European and Middle East equities and investment banking operations in 2008.

Meanwhile, BarCap made a number of cuts in its infrastructure legal division in August. The bank would not confirm the number of cuts other than to state that the number of legal positions affected was "in single digits".

The redundancies come after BarCap revamped its legal team in November last year in the wake of former Ashurst partner Erica Handling's appointment as EMEA general counsel.

The reshuffle saw a number of departures including EMEA legal head of investment banking, Louise Hourigan and senior legal directors Tom Bartos and Penny Walker. Bartos joined Bell Capital Partners, with Walker joining Campbell Lutyens.

Nomura also saw a senior departure around the same time, with its joint EMEA general counsel Mark Chapman leaving to join Barclays late last year to lead the legal team for its global retail banking division.

One Nomura adviser commented: "The guys leaving Nomura are between six and eight years' PQE – a talented bunch. The bank has been making a huge effort to cut costs and has stripped the legal team down to its core."

Both Nomura and BarCap said there would be no more legal redundancies in 2011.