Law Practice Management
February Free Fall: Major Law Firms Lay Off Another 2,000-Plus Attorneys and Staff
Posted Feb 26, 2009 3:25 PM CST
By Martha Neil
As the dismal economy has continued on a downward spiral this month, so has the legal industry, with February layoffs exceeding January's by a considerable margin. January's carnage, in which renowned law firms laid off more than 1,500 attorneys and staff at last count, has been followed by further freefall in February in which more than 2,000 attorneys and staff lost their jobs.
On a single "Bloody Thursday," Feb. 12, law firms announced plans to ax some 800 attorneys and staff, at last report, and at least one has also imposed a pay freeze. And, in another major milestone, a top London-based international law firm, Allen & Overy, announced Feb. 19 that it would be cutting up to 450 attorneys and staff, spinning off part of its practice, imposing a pay freeze and asking remaining partners for an average of about $50,000 each in additional capital.
And today Latham & Watkins announced internally that it is laying off 190 associates and 250 staff members--more than double the number that Above the Law tipsters had warned of earlier this week.
An ongoing stream of law firm layoff news throughout the month has contributed further to the total:
Yesterday, New Jersey-based Lowenstein Sandler has just announced today that it is dismissing 53 attorneys and staff and shifting three of the 18 incoming third-year law students who had been scheduled to start work there this fall (as well as up to three of the dismissed lawyers) to lower-paid one-year public-interest jobs, according to Above the Law.
Layoffs have also been confirmed this month by, among others, Miami-based Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod (a "small number," which tipsters describe as two lawyers and two staff); Dechert (10 staff attorneys, in the most recent round, following 19 lawyers earlier this month); Luce Forward Hamilton & Scripps (12 lawyers and 15 staff); McDermott Will & Emery (60 lawyers and 89 staff); Neal Gerber & Eisenberg (19 lawyers and 32 staff); Nixon Peabody (20 lawyers and 36 staff); Sheppard Mullin (a total of 25 attorney layoffs, in January and February, were announced this month); and United Kingdom-based Simmons & Simmons (up to 20 associates and 49 staff).
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney reportedly laid off between 25 and 30 staffers last week, in its second round of staff layoffs since November. It was among six firms announcing layoffs within a few days of each other; the largest number was at Day Pitney, which let 66 staff members go.
The Law Shucks layoff tracker lists more than 25 law firms in the United States and United Kingdom that have announced layoffs this month, tallying the total number of jobs lost at nearly 2,200 even before news of the Latham and Lowenstein layoffs.
Meanwhile, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman inadvertently announced attorney layoffs last week, when a senior partner apparently discussed the firm's situation on his cell phone in a crowded train car. Full details, however, have not yet been provided, and the firm reportedly may not actually make these layoffs until March.
Updated at 11:25 p.m. on Feb. 27 to accord with subsequent news of Latham & Watkins layoffs.
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Comments
B. McLeod
Feb 26, 2009 3:59 PM CST
The decline seems to be still picking up momentum. March (a longer month) could bring even higher numbers. On the bright side, a lot of Big Law castaways will have ample time to work on their tax returns.
Anonymous
Feb 26, 2009 5:18 PM CST
We can thank the ABA for passing a rule that allows the outsourcing of a massive amount of entry-level legal work to India. Perfect timing.
B. McLeod
Feb 26, 2009 6:25 PM CST
I saw a story that some of those lawyers in India only get the equivalent of $12,000 or so for a whole year. It’s hard to blame companies for sending their work over where they can get a whole year’s work for the same cost as a week’s work at Big Law. It’s equally hard to blame Indian lawyers for a problem that actually stems from Big Law being too stupid and arrogant to compete on fees.
Oscar Diaz
Feb 26, 2009 6:32 PM CST
I would like to learn more regarding the outsourcing of legal work to India…, hot did that happen?
Al Veoli
Feb 27, 2009 5:35 AM CST
This guy McLeod is all over the place on this websiite. If his firm sees how busy he is posting—and not working—he will be on the casualty list.
However, he may already have gotten the ax. How does this guy find all the time to read, and post, and do it over and over and over again?
Is he really on the ABA staff? That might explain why he is all over the place here.
B. McLeod, please explain to us who you are, and where you work (if not the ABA).?
B. McLeod
Feb 27, 2009 7:21 AM CST
Ah. “Sheketovits,” you got a new alias!
BC
Feb 27, 2009 7:29 AM CST
I have friends who were casulties of some of the 2008 layoffs. They haven’t found employment yet, and at least one person has taken a position as a manager of McDonalds to obtain steady income to pay his bills and take care of his family.
Steimy
Feb 27, 2009 7:53 AM CST
And February is not over yet….I’m sure there’ll be more layoffs today
Pete Clarke
Feb 27, 2009 8:28 AM CST
I would like to meet B. McLeod and Al Veoli (Sheketovits) for lunch and some networking.
AndytheLawyer
Feb 27, 2009 9:19 AM CST
The solution is obvious. American lawyers need to do what their intrepid forefathers did—emigrate to a better land in search of a better life. That means relocating to India if that’s where the work is. Namaste, y’all!
Stone
Feb 27, 2009 9:24 AM CST
At least all this will speed up the Educational Debt Bail Out that must be coming this summer. It’s needed for tens of thousands of sucker attorneys who a crippled by debt.
Here’s to that bail out coming soon.
Still employed
Feb 27, 2009 9:45 AM CST
Our firm hasn’t laid anybody off, but if we did I doubt it would even make the local papers. Although we’ve seen a downturn in work, there is no consideration of layoffs. Actually, we are busy responding to requests for proposals to take on more work (transfering work away from these big firms that are laying people off). Because we don’t pay the high coastal overhead and don’t adhere to a “profits per partner” model (our partners get paid for work they do and a little bonus for supervising and originating), clients get a lot more value for their money. The law industry restructuring is coming!!
Frank
Feb 27, 2009 11:26 AM CST
The answer to our economic problems is…. boomtown. We need to go back to what made our country great. Local/Regional/National business. Support businesses that in turn support the community in which it does business. For example, if you buy a product from amazon.com, how does that help your city/town/state? It doesn’t, you just sent money to some suit wearing hippie in Seattle. If you bought that same product at say the now defunct circuit city, that brick and mortar store supported YOUR community but employing sales associates managers, janitorial services to clean the building, the landlord who leased the building who in turn paid his own staff and his property managers who in turn and so on and so on. Globalization (including outsourcing legal work to india) is BAD BAD BAD.
BigNurse
Feb 27, 2009 12:06 PM CST
13 asked “if you buy a product from amazon.com, how does that help your city/town/state?”—If amazon offer a cheaper product than anything local, then it puts more money in my pocket that I could possibly spend at a local business, like a restaurant. And if the suit wearing hippie in Seattle can make the most profit by being most efficient, then it encourages others, perhaps those in my locality, to be more efficient.
Humans societies have been evolving towards being more connected to each other, not less. Curling up into a ball and pretending that others who can perform more cost efficiently don’t exist will cause you to lose out in the end.
Judy
Feb 27, 2009 12:07 PM CST
This is horrible news. I wish i could say it is shocking. at least those whom have been laid off can collect unemployment. Many class of 2008 attorneys (such as myself) are still looking for our first job out of law school.
jr.
Feb 27, 2009 12:31 PM CST
I am glad I voted for Obama. Change has come to America. All the rich neocons will know what it is like to be poor and on handouts.
Osito
Feb 27, 2009 12:33 PM CST
#11 - Education Debt Bail Out! Love it! But in order to receive your share, you have to show that you cheated on tests, stole outlines from more industrious students, still got miserable grades, didn’t learn a thing from year to year (despite repeated warnings!), and you put out pretty lousy work product. There. Sound familiar?
GRANT H. GOODMAN, PLLC
Feb 27, 2009 1:30 PM CST
Comment removed by moderator.
Tim
Feb 27, 2009 3:28 PM CST
Question: have these laid off people physically left their firms? Or just been given the standard 60-90 “notice” period wherein they still get paid and are supposed to be looking?
attorney
Feb 27, 2009 6:41 PM CST
I am looking forward the March Mayhem with attorney layoffs and law firm closings and bankruptcies.
Kalifornia Arnold
Feb 27, 2009 7:55 PM CST
Even the outsourcing to India has hit hard—-One Indian law firm has just announced they will have to Calcutta their staff.
Rocco
Feb 28, 2009 9:08 AM CST
No need in to be in fear of layoffs here at the PD’s office. Just grabbing all that great experience in trying major felony cases and spending 20+ hours a week in the courtroom. So busy here that I don’t even have the time to wipe my butt the way I would like to. Oh, but yes, I do feel sorry for all my cocky law school classmates who at one time were boasting about all that big money they would be making in the private sector and how in 7 short years they would be making partner . . . ah, how sweet it would be to now know their lot in life!
B. McLeod
Feb 28, 2009 11:22 AM CST
Oh stop, Rocco. You’re making me weep. Wait. . . Never mind, it was just allergies.
Fredricka Finkelstein (not my real name :>)
Feb 28, 2009 12:41 PM CST
Jaysus! I got a Master’s in 2008 in Counseling and couldn’t find a job anywhere. So I dusted off my old LPN license (requirement: HS diploma) and got a job paying $20/hr almost immediately. I was thinking of becoming a lawyer, but after eyeballing all of this…I’m going to print all of this out and post it on the wall of the hospital where I work. :>)
An LPN is not a real nurse, RN
Mar 2, 2009 8:32 PM CST
Post #24, being a LPN is nothing to shake at because you treated like the cleaning crew and the aides. You are not a RN, MD, PT, OT, SW, DO, or anything else. So please don’t come to this site and brag because on my lowest day, I would not work as a LPN. My sister is RN. Print this for the hospital wall also.
B. McLeod
Mar 2, 2009 11:25 PM CST
Whoa, hey. Hospitals are scary enough as is.
E
Mar 3, 2009 7:53 AM CST
Too many law schools, many too many lawyers, and Big Law employing research drone hacks who can’t actually lawyer at 10x what they’r worth. It’s an overdue correction.
ACL
Mar 5, 2009 1:23 PM CST
Take it easy on the outsourcing-bashing. It’s not as though everyone involved in the outsourcing business does not deserve the work being sent his or her way. Some of them are even licensed to practice in the United States.
Just in case you’re wondering, yes, I am an outsourcing beneficiary. And yes, I took and passed the NY Bar.
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