Law practice partners have witnessed average billable fees fall by nearly £1m a year over the course of the downturn, according to legal recruitment specialist Ambition.

 
The data shows that in 2008, partners had been billing average annual fees of £3.3m but by the end of 2009 this figure had fallen to £2.4m.
 
Consequently law firms have been hiring business development managers, client relationship specialists and other marketing support staff in order to help boost billing levels. which has helped drive up the number of business development vacancies. In London such vacancies have risen 54% over the year.
 

The data also shows that while in 2009, 39% of law firms expected to cut their number of support staff further in 2010, vacancies for support staff have risen by more than half over the last year.