Dundas & Wilson has made 28 job cuts across its Edinburgh, Glasgow and London bases after launching a consultation process in late February.

The Scottish firm began the consultation after a review of "anticipated business needs" earlier this year.

One insider said the job cuts – which did not affect partners or the firm's newly opened Aberdeen office – were "relatively evenly spread" across practice areas, with both fee-earners and support staff affected.

The news comes shortly after managing partner Donald Shaw announced he was standing down from his role to return to client work, with restructuring partner Caryn Penley and real estate partner Allan Wernham appointed joint leaders on an interim basis.

One partner at a rival Scottish firm observed: "Donald stepping down can't have been planned because otherwise there wouldn't be two people jointly running the show. Co-managing partners bears the hallmarks of a quick-fix solution."

Dundas chairman David Hardie is responsible for the election process to find a new leader, which is understood to take between six and eight weeks. It is not known when the selection will formally begin, but the new managing partner is expected to be in place by September.

The redundancy round came not long after merger talks with London firm Bircham Dyson Bell were called off. Earlier this year Dundas also announced plans to open a new Aberdeen office led by senior corporate partners Douglas Crawford and David Davidson.