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Cooley Godward Fires 52 Attorneys and 62 Staff Members

Posted Jan 21, 2009 6:54 PM CST
By Martha Neil

Add another well-known law firm to the ever-lengthening list of those that have made significant layoffs this month.

Silicon Valley-based Cooley Godward Kronish announced in an internal memo today that it is laying off 52 lawyers and 62 staff members, reports Above the Law. The high-tech corporate and litigation firm—which, according to its website, has a roster of 725 attorneys—says in a memo authored by partner and chief executive officer Joe Conroy that it is making the firmwide layoffs in response to the struggling economy.

"Given the continued slowdown we have experienced in pockets of the firm over the last five months and the forecast for continuing global economic turmoil in 2009, the executive and management committees concluded that a reduction is necessary at this time," Conroy writes. However, "notwithstanding the difficult steps we are taking today, the state of our firm is strong and I am confident about our future," he adds farther down in the memo.

Seldom known to underplay claims of law firm layoffs, the ATL blog initially did so today. At first, it said in an earlier ATL post that Cooley Godward is making attorney and staff layoffs that could total "into the fifties."

Later on, however, ATL updated its information and posted Conroy's memo, which clearly indicates that the total number of laid-off lawyers and staff totals 114—double the initial ATL prediction.

As discussed in earlier ABAJournal.com posts, news of over half a dozen well-known U.S. law firms making attorney and/or staff layoffs has hit the press within approximately the past week.

Although layoffs obviously are distressing to those involved, the seemingly ever-increasing number of law firms laying off attorneys may mean that the firms themselves are well-managed, legal consultant Joel Henning of Hildebrandt International told ABAJournal.com in a Jan. 9 post, shortly after four more well-known law firms announced attorney cuts.

The struggling world economy can provide a useful impetus for addressing issues such as unproductive attorneys and the need to shift from lockstep to merit-based associate compensation that have been looming for some time, Henning told ABAJournal.com, as well as the need for law firm management to keep a close eye on financials and the ability of clients to pay their legal bills.

Recent ABAJournal.com coverage:

Squire Sanders and Ice Miller Lay Off Staffers

Latest Layoffs: Skadden Staff Attorneys & 65 Akin Gump Staff, Among Others

Layoffs at Philly-Based Law Firms

Boston’s Foley Hoag Lays Off 32 Associates and Staff

Comments

1.

B. McLeod
Jan 21, 2009 7:06 PM CST

Indeed it does appear they have experienced a continued slowdown in the pockets of the firm.

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2.

Get lower fees for your company
Jan 22, 2009 7:43 AM CST

If you are in house consel or CFO - demand a 50% reduction in the rates these firms are billing you at.  They have no choice but to accept your demands for lower fees as the flood of work is going to smaller firms who bill out at less.  The era of $900 an hour work is over.

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3.

Tim
Jan 23, 2009 6:36 AM CST

I guess all the people they picked up from Heller was a bad move eh?

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4.

BC
Jan 23, 2009 7:14 AM CST

Here is a novel idea…instead of laying off/firing attorneys, how about you lower the billible hour requirements thereby justifying lowering everyone’s pay.  You get to keep all the attorneys, provide a better, less stressed life for them, and at the same time, still make enough money to be competitive.  Just a thought…

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5.

tim
Jan 23, 2009 7:53 AM CST

A lawyer is supposed to bill 2,000 hours.  Stop crying.

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6.

associate
Jan 23, 2009 8:32 AM CST

Well said BC

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7.

Hadley V. Baxendale
Jan 23, 2009 8:34 AM CST

BC—that won’t work at the Biglaw model b/c it would entail reducing partner profits. Partner profits are no different from stock dividends.  What company maintains unjustified dividend distribution at the expense of operations?  The worm is turning.

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8.

StephenG
Jan 23, 2009 8:57 AM CST

Did Abraham Lincoln ever bill 2,000 hours?

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9.

Mike Appleton
Jan 23, 2009 9:18 AM CST

Yes, but only to his railroad clients.

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10.

Jose
Jan 23, 2009 11:09 AM CST

The reason you get laid off is you want a 9 to 5 job and don’t bring in the bacon. 

Being a lawyer is not a 9 to 5 job.  If the job demands it, sometimes you spend all night at the office just to make sure the documents are done in time for the 8:00 Board Meeting.

Lazy people shouldn’t be lawyers.

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11.

Older Guy
Jan 23, 2009 11:39 AM CST

“The fundamentals of our firm are strong…”

Where have we heard something like that before?

I’m going short on Cooley Godward.

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12.

Former Cooley-ite
Jan 23, 2009 12:12 PM CST

It’s not just “lazy lawyers” who get laid off.  Plenty of lawyers who got the boot in 2001 (Cooley’s last layoff) were hardworking and had exceptional talent.  I stayed on, but soon realized the younger management of the firm had very different ideas about how to run a law practice (so I left).

Truth is, Cooley (as noted by Older Guy) has been through this before, largely for the same reasons:  they “beefed up” for boutiquey niche work, thinking it was a gold mine.  When the market fell, they were not very well diversified.

The management has, since about 1999 been incredibly arrogant about its worth.  Their prices are high, they’re picky about their clientele, and their staffing is burdensome to most companies. 

The quality of representation at Cooley is excellent, but that’s not enough to carry the day in difficult economic times.

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13.

Freep
Jan 23, 2009 12:29 PM CST

They don’t fire people with a book of business.  They fire 5th year hard working and have exceptional talent and no book of business.

I bet Cooley will go the way of Heller within a year.

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14.

LALaw
Jan 23, 2009 12:52 PM CST

Wasn’t Cooley one of a handful of firms who also made significant staff reductions after the dot.com bubble burst?

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15.

Cooley-Ex
Jan 23, 2009 1:10 PM CST

Yes, As Ex Colley-ite said, they did massive layoffs in 01.

But the way Cooley works, associates typically don’t have a “book of business;” partners do.  So Freep is correct, hardworking near-partnership attorneys who are making big bank get tanked (deadbeats got fired a long time ago). 

It’s unfortunate that good attorneys are getting the smear because of poor management.  The Cooley attorneys I know (with a few notable exceptions) are talented and hard-working.

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16.

Rocco
Jan 23, 2009 5:43 PM CST

No worries here (Public Defenders Office).

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17.

NYC Defense Attorney
Jan 24, 2009 2:51 PM CST

All these firms firing people really worry me, I work in defense litigation (personal injury defense and no fault auto) but I still stress that the downturn means my position is also at risk if the insurance companies can’t afford to retain lawyers to defend suits. I don’t feel safer than the corporate lawyers who did the real estate deals.

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18.

B. McLeod
Jan 24, 2009 3:20 PM CST

Good point.  Maybe Harvey Bird Smack can get you hired on with him at Sebben & Sebben.

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19.

Allen Sheketovits
Jan 25, 2009 8:55 AM CST

McLoud again weighing in?  What is this?  I think this is terrible, and not to be joked about.  I think there should be something done to rescue the firms that are in extremis, no?

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