Special Recession Issue

Illustration by John Ritter

Some very hard times are on the horizon.

Stock markets have cra­tered, credit markets have seized up, and nothing the regulators have done seems to have had much impact on an economy that looks as bad as it has looked since the Great Depression.

How did we come to this, and what role did the work of lawyers play? What effect will the downturn likely have on the business of law on both Wall Street and Main Street? And how can you survive the slump?

This special issue begins to answer those questions.

We look back to the last great legal recession for clues about how this bust is likely to play out.

We profile lawyers who had key roles during Wall Street’s meltdown, as well as some who lost their jobs.

And we examine how the economic implosion that began in Lower Manhattan is likely to reverberate for months or years to come in law firms, courthouses and government offices across the nation.