Clifford Chance once had aspirations to dominate New York. Its 1999 combination with Roger & Wells provided the London-based legal giant a 452-lawyer footprint in New York, enough to make it the fifth largest employer of lawyers at that time in New York state.
A decade later, Clifford Chance’s New York office is a shadow of its former self. Years of struggles to hold the merger together coupled with a global recession shaved Clifford Chance’s headcount 40 percent last year as the firm resorted to layoffs and watched litigation partners walk out the door. Only 197 lawyers remain.
