Slaughter and May has concluded a redundancy consultation which will see 44 secretarial staff leave the firm, the vast majority of which have opted to take voluntary redundancy.

The firm began the consultation last month, with around 28 full-time equivalent roles expected to be affected. However, more secretaries opted to take voluntary redundancy than were required, with 41 taking up the offer, equating to a reduction of 30.3 full-time equivalent (FTE) roles.

A further three or four secretaries have been made redundant involuntarily from the firm's evening team – equating to 2.4 FTE roles – bringing the total number of exits to 44 individuals, or 32.7 FTE positions.

Slaughters executive partner Graham White said: "We are extremely grateful that the outcome of this exercise was less painful than it could have been, with the  overwhelming majority of redundancies carried out on a voluntary basis and  slightly more than the number we had originally aimed for opting to take voluntary redundancy.

"Unfortunately, with the increase in the use of technology  and an evolution in the way business is carried out, there has been a change to business needs and as a business we needed to recognise that change."

The move has seen Slaughters reduce the number of secretaries at the firm from 165 to around 120.

The additional voluntary redundancies were taken in the magic circle firm's day staff team. All redundant staff will leave the firm at the close of the year.