Top management pay at Norton Rose Fulbright dropped almost 45% in the financial year to April 2018, according to the firm's latest LLP accounts.

The firm said the figure – down from £5.1m to £2.8m – can be attributed to changes in its management structure, which have included "retirements and a reduction in the number of full-time management positions at the firm".

Key exits from the management team during the last financial year include global and European head of technology and innovation Mike Rebeiro's move to Macfarlanes, and London litigation head Deirdre Walker moving to Dubai to head up the firm's Middle Eastern litigation practice, according to one former Norton Rose partner.

The ex-partner added: "There were too many layers of management after mergers. Every time they did a merger with a new firm, they had another 'head of' something, so they've been smoothing out those extra tiers for a flatter management structure."

Norton Rose did not respond to requests for further comment.

The LLP document lists the "designated members" for the financial year to April 2018. It says two of those – Deirdre Walker and chair of EMEA Stephen Parish – had resigned from that role during the year. Farmida Bi was appointed as a designated member from 1 May 2018, which alongside Louise Higginbottom and Martin Scott gives the firm three such members. In the previous financial year it had four.

The accounts also show that the average number of Norton Rose partners rose from 241 to 260, but staff costs dropped by 1% to £210.6m.

The number of business services staff dropped by 62 to 1,056 but the hiring of two new fee-earners took the total number of staff to 2,143.

The highest-paid partner's income rose 9% to £1.52m, as operating profits grew 11% to £131.5m and global turnover increased by 5% to £472,663.

Revenues for the firm's UK arm remained flat at about £252.8m, while they grew by 14% to £134.8m within the rest of Europe and by 9% to nearly £85m for the rest of its EMEA business.

During that financial year, Norton Rose pulled out of Abu Dhabi and Kazakhstan and launched a Luxembourg office.

The changes emerged as Norton Rose's City disputes partner Poupak Anjomshoaa exits for Baker Botts after a year.

Anjomshoaa will be the third lateral hire for Baker Botts in two months. In January, it recruited  corporate partner Richard Brown and project finance partner Nick Collins.

Prior to joining Norton Rose, Anjomshoaa was the general counsel and company secretary of petrochemicals company Carbon Holdings for four years.

The firm, which merged with US firm Chadbourne & Parke in June 2017, saw its global chief executive Peter Martyr reassume the role for his sixth three-year term that October, while the partnership elected former Islamic finance head Farmida Bi last February to become the firm's first female chair for Europe, the Middle East and Asia.