The move by DLA Piper in the UK follows a review of its operations there, part of a firm-wide review of office and partner profitability.

The consultation exercise, which is due to run until early next year, could see the closure of its Glasgow office, which has 10 partners, 25 fee earners and 50 business support staff, as well as the closure or divestment of its 50-strong defendant insurance practice.

DLA revealed that 116 jobs in document production across the firm's eight UK offices could also be in jeopardy.

A statement from the firm said: “Following a comprehensive review of our UK business designed to ensure that we are operating in a manner, in the locations, and across the practice areas that support both our strategic objectives and the needs of our clients, we have begun a period of consultation in the UK that will determine the future of our Glasgow office, our defendant insurance practice and our current multi-site document production unit.”

The planned redundancies come despite DLA positing strong financial results earlier this year. In July, it announced figures for 2011 that showed a 14 per cent increase in both total revenue and profit on the previous year.

Meanwhile, data published in this year’s The Lawyer Global Litigation Top 50 has revealed DLA Piper billed more than $1 billion on litigation and international arbitration matters last year, topping the top 50 litigation table for the first time.