Stephenson Harwood is to conduct a redundancy round for support staff in its London office, following a review of its secretarial and document production functions.

An internal review into the services prompted the decision to "undertake a significant reorganisation" of the functions.

"Regrettably the proposed reorganisation will entail a reduction in secretarial and document production staffing levels and will inevitably result in some redundancies," the firm said in a statement.

The firm declined to comment on a timeframe for the consultation, how many cuts to secretarial staff were expected, or what type of packages would be offered to staff asked to leave.

According to Stephenson Harwood's LLP accounts for 2012-13 the firm had an average of 180 support staff, an increase from 173 the previous year.

"The aim of this reorganisation is to provide a more efficient and cost effective secretarial service to our fee earners – a move which has been undertaken by many law firms," the statement added.

In the last 18 months, publicly-announced redundancy rounds of secretarial staff have seen Berwin Leighton Paisner cut 58 legal staff and 44 secretarial staff between May and July last year. Also in July, Taylor Wessing laid off 22 City secretaries, after placing 96 London roles under consultation.