Partners at leading law firms earned close to £900,000 this year despite an average decline in profits for the top 100 firms of 30%, according to research conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

PWC's survey shows that average profits per partner of the top 10 firms at £872,000 were almost twice that of the next tier (11-25) at £444,000.

Alistair Rose, partner at PWC, said: “This year has seen the greatest turmoil in the law firm sector since our survey began in 1991. It was quite clear when our last survey was published that law firms would be far from immune from the economic crisis. As it turns out, the impact has been even greater than we anticipated across the sector. A relatively small number of firms predicted the likely extent and severity of the recession and started to cut headcount and take out cost early in the second half of financial year 2009.”

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