Pinsent Masons is to cut around 15 support staff after announcing its second redundancy consultation since its merger with Scots firm McGrigors went live in May.

The national firm confirmed the consultation today (8 November), with the cuts expected to affect staff in the firms' finance and knowledge management teams.

The review is expected to finish in December.

News of the redundancies – first reported today on RollOnFriday – comes after Pinsents launched a post-merger efficiency review in June, with 47 back office roles cut in August across departments including business development, IT, HR and facilities.

No fee earners have been affected.

A spokesman for Pinsents said: "In June the firm began an exercise to review existing support structures in light of its merger and consider what changes would be needed to provide the most effective level of support to the combined business. As anticipated, duplicate roles were identified within our support teams and a number of people left the firm.

"We are now about to conduct the second phase of this process and expect around 15 support roles to be at risk. We are consulting with those affected and anticipate that this will be complete in December."

The merger between Pinsents and McGrigors went live on 1 May this year, creating a new firm just outside the UK top 10, with combined revenues of almost £300m. The firm houses around 350 partners and 1,500 lawyers, including around 500 in London.

A number of national firms have made cuts this year including Shoosmiths, which shed 86 staff in July; Addleshaw Goddard, which made 24 fee-earners redundant in August; while in September Shakespeares announced it expected to axe 13 lawyers and 41 back office staff following consultation.

The news also comes after Slaughter and May recently concluded a redundancy consultation which will see 44 secretarial staff leave the firm, the vast majority of which have opted to take voluntary redundancy.