Osborne Clarke (OC) has launched a redundancy consultation with 13 fee-earners and confirmed that a small number of partners have also been asked to exit the firm.

The redundancy consultation, which was announced internally today (15 May) and the partner restructuring both come as part of plans to reduce a surplus of senior lawyers within the firm.

The number of partners set to leave OC is understood to be in single figures and follows a review of its partner ranks, where the firm felt it had reached overcapacity.

None of the partners affected have been made redundant.

Managing partner Simon Beswick said it had seen a shift in client preference towards using junior lawyers in a bid to achieve more cost-effective legal services.

This change has left the firm oversubscribed at more senior levels, resulting in the two-week redundancy consultation. Those at risk come from across the business, with all three UK offiecs in London, Bristol and Reading affected.

Beswick (pictured) said: "We are increasingly seeing clients seeking greater value for money and expressing a preference for less leverage and partners working more frequently with junior lawyers. As such, we have too much senior resource with lawyers hitting up against this issue.

"We had hoped the situation would unwind itself however it is with regret that we have had to put 13 fee-earners from small pockets across the business at risk of redundancy.

"When we looked at the situation, we also found we had small pockets of overcapacity in our partner ranks as well as senior fee-earners and we have taken steps to address that as well."

The news comes in a week that has seen both Berwin Leighton Paisner and DWF announce redundancies, with the former set to cut more than 100 jobs.

Earlier this year, Eversheds placed 166 roles under consultation while Pinsent Masons and CMS Cameron McKenna announced redundancy rounds of 15 and 40 respectively.