The firm would not comment on rumours that at least a dozen employees had been made redundant, including junior lawyers in the M&A group.

The firm said that a limited number of redundancies were made, which were "very regrettable".

"As you can imagine, this is a challenging time for the firm and for our people (as it is for the community as a whole) so, apart from this statement, we will not be making any further comments," said managing partner Peter Smith.

- Sarah Sharples