The revenues of law firms in the US will have dropped by 5 to 10 per cent this year despite increased third quarter demand, according to projections by Citi Private Bank reported in the Financial Times.

Dan DiPietro, head of client relations for the bank’s law firm group in New York, is quoted as saying that those firms relying heavily on financial services will suffer the most.

Mr DiPietro believes more lawyers lost their jobs in the third quarter than in the second and sees some law firms now cutting jobs at partner level, including equity partners.

Citi based its 2009 law firm revenue projections on data it began collecting from 131 US firms in 2001.