Hogan Lovells is set to trim its US business services ranks by more than 40 members of staff, following a voluntary retirement programme.

The programme, which closed last week, saw about 400 US business services staff who had been with the firm for at least five years invited to take voluntary retirement.

Hogan Lovells has now confirmed that 10%-12% of the 400 accepted the offer, meaning the firm will shed about 45 US staff.

The firm initially expected that 5%-10% would take up the offer – equating to 20-40 staff.

However, despite the retirements, some of the roles will not be lost. A Hogan Lovells spokesperson said: "We are looking at each role on a case-by-case basis – some we will replace in the relevant office or elsewhere, some will be moved to Louisville and some we will not replace."

The transatlantic firm said the decision had been taken in part due to a number of early retirement requests it had received from business services staff, and said that it would be offering "enhanced terms" for those involved. It added that the move would enable the firm "to look again at our business services roles and where we deliver those services from".

In the US, Hogan Lovells last year launched a $9m (£6.8m) global business services centre in Louisville, Kentucky, which focuses on work such as billing, tech support and conflict checks.

The US cutbacks come on top of 90 UK roles affected by a restructuring of the firm's London operations, which was announced last month.

The UK restructuring will see 78 business services roles and 12 legal support positions in London cut or moved to the firm's business services centres in Johannesburg and Birmingham, both of which were launched in 2014.

The firm expects that "the vast majority" of the roles will be moving, with about two thirds of the roles likely to transfer to Johannesburg.

The firm is not currently undertaking any other business service or legal support restructurings in any of its other global offices.