Biggest Buffalo, NY, Law Firm Lays Off 5 Lawyers and 8 Staff

Corrected: Buffalo, N.Y.-based Hodgson Russ asked five lawyers and eight staff members to leave last week.

Gary Schober, the president and chief executive of the more than 200-attorney law firm, declines to say exactly why the dismissals, which he hesitated to call layoffs, were made, reports Business First of Buffalo.

Although the article indicates that the layoffs were in the Buffalo headquarters and that additional layoffs may have been made in the firm's seven other offices, the five lawyers and eight staff members were the total number of employees let go, Schober tells ABAJournal.com.

He declined to provide additional details about the layoffs.

However, after the largest summer associate program the firm has ever had, "we have made offers to eight new associates," he tells Business First. "While I believe that overall, hiring will be reduced at the attorney level, we are following through with our offer to hire those people in 2009.”

Corrected at 2:45 p.m. on Feb. 4 to include information from Schober about exact number of layoffs.