Weil Gotshal & Manges is set to cut around 170 jobs in a major round of layoffs affecting both lawyers and support staff.

The firm has announced that it is aiming to reduce associate headcount by around 60, with roughly 110 support staff positions also set to go.

A spokesman confirmed that although the cuts will predominantly affect its domestic US offices, the redundancies are being made firmwide. It is not clear to what extent the firm's London office will be affected.

Outside of the US and London, Weil has offices in Beijing, Budapest, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Munich, Paris, Prague, Shanghai and Warsaw.

Weil executive chairman Barry Wolf said in an internal email to lawyers and staff: "The market for premium legal services has entered into a 'new normal' after the 2008 financial crisis. As the restructuring and litigation work relating to the crisis winds down… we must now make the adjustments we avoided over the last few years to position the firm to continue to thrive. Actions to enhance revenue alone will not be sufficient to position the firm as necessary for these new market conditions."

"While we have been able to avoid these actions in the past, and it is very painful from a human perspective, the management committee believes these actions are essential now to enable our firm to continue to excel and retain its historic profitability in the new normal."

Wolf added that the firm is shifting its focus away from its complex commercial litigation practice in Houston and Boston, and that some partners will "decide to pursue other opportunities" following "meaningful compensation adjustments".

Wolf said the firm has made "meaningful investments" to increase its revenue base for the future.

Job cuts have swept through the UK legal market in recent months, with Legal Week research finding that nearly half of the country's 50 largest law firms have announced cuts over the past year. More than 1,300 jobs have been put at risk across 20 top 50 UK firms since the start of the 2012-13 financial year, with around 750 positions cut to date.

For more, see Law firm layoffs mount up as top 50 job cuts reach 750 over past year.