Law firm Pinsent Masons has confirmed is to make around 40 of its UK staff redundant in the wake of its merger with McGrigors, though no lawyers will go in the shake-up.

The firm has a large Birmingham office but no indication has been given at this stage as to how many jobs might be lost there.

Prior to the merger Pinsent Masons operated across the UK and internationally, while McGrigors had offices in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Aberdeen, Manchester, Qatar and the Falkland Islands.

The combined firm, which operates worldwide under the name and brand of Pinsent Masons, employs more than 2,500 people in total including over 1,500 lawyers, 500 of whom are based in Pinsent Masons’ international headquarters in the City of London.

A spokesman for Pinsent Masons said, “The merger between Pinsent Masons and McGrigors created a firm with over 2,500 people across the UK, the Gulf and Asia Pacific.

“Since the merger, the firm has embarked on an exercise to review existing support structures and consider what changes would be needed to provide the highest level of support to the combined business.

“Unfortunately, as with any merger, there are a number of duplicate roles within our support teams and as such we have identified a small number of potential redundancies in those areas.