Former King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) Europe and Middle East (EUME) partners are to be asked to pay for the preparation of the failed business's final accounts.

Quantuma, the administrator of the collapsed business, has engaged big four accounting firm Deloitte to prepare KWM EUME's cessation accounts and is set to write to former partners who were at the firm during the period covered by these accounts to request "a commensurate contribution" to cover the cost.

Sources close to the matter said Quantuma put the work out to competitive tender before Deloitte was engaged.

The administration process is being jointly run by Quantuma partners Andrew Hosking and Sean Bucknall and also involves a number of KWM staff, including former EUME managing partner Tim Bednall and general counsel David Wilman.

Around 50 members of KWM staff were initially engaged in the administration process by Quantuma, including HR, IT, accountancy and administrative staff, as well as a number of lawyers.

This number is expected to have fallen to around 20 staff by the end of this week (10 February).

As part of the formal administration process, the administrators will investigate how the failed firm's finances were run and the decisions made by KWM management figures in the lead-up to the firm's collapse at the start of this year.

One City insolvency practitioner commented: "It is quite normal for administrators to review the actions of any executive management who have been operative in the three years prior to the corporate collapse."

Ashfords head of professional and financial risk Sam Palmer was brought in by Quantuma to manage the billing and collection of remaining files and the allocation of client monies during the administration process. She has emailed former partners twice to remind them of their ongoing responsibilities on client matters after concerns were raised about confidential information discarded in partners' offices after their departures for other firms.

All of these documents are expected to be cleared out of the firm's 10 Queen's St Place offices by the end of this week.

KWM EUME went into administration on 17 January. At its height in 2007-08, the legacy SJ Berwin business was ranked 14th in the UK top 50, with revenues of £215m and profit per equity partner of £801,000.

Earlier today, Legal Week revealed that KWM partners rejected at least four attempts by management to increase capital at the firm between 2011 and 2015.