Employment levels at around half of the country’s big law firms have contracted over the past year, according to new figures from legal publishing group KSU, quoted in the Financieele Dagblad.

The biggest decliners include Clifford Chance (-13%), Freshfields (-17%), and Simmons & Simmons (-19%). Local Dutch firms such as Van Mens & Wisselink have lost more staff in percentual terms because of internal conflicts.
None of the big Anglo American practices have grown over the past year, the paper says. Nevertheless, employment levels in the legal sector as a whole have gone up just under 5%.