DWF is to make a small number of fee-earners and secretaries redundant across its Edinburgh and Glasgow offices following a review of its Scottish business.

Twelve staff are included in the consultation, with the firm anticipating that eight of these could go after identifying a number of duplicate roles as a result of last summer's tie-up with Scots firm Biggart Baillie.

The consultation, which follows a review of the Scottish business earlier this month, does not have to comply with any minimum statutory consultation period as fewer than 20 employees are affected.

News of the job cuts comes after the firm cut 38 support staff in its central services team in March following a redundancy consultation affecting more than 140 people.

That redundancy round came shortly after DWF completed its pre-pack takeover of Cobbetts the previous month and covered a mix of both longer-term DWF staff and those brought in from the failed Manchester firm.

Commenting on the cuts managing partner Andrew Leaitherland (pictured)said: "As a growing business we have done well to continue to increase the number of people we employ despite the challenging economic conditions. With over 2,500 people in the business it is inevitable that there will be reviews from time to time to try to align headcount levels with levels of activity, both anticipated and actual, within the business.

"This unfortunately does affect our people but we want to ensure that they are supported throughout these difficult times as much as possible."

DWF has experienced dramatic growth over the past 18 months. In addition to the Biggart Baillie merger and the Cobbetts' pre-pack purchase, the firm has also acquired northeast outfit Crutes, Midlands firm Buller Jeffries and London professional indemnity specialists Fishburns – effectively doubling the size of its business.