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731 Lawyers and Staff Laid Off Monday at Morgan Lewis, K&L Gates and White & Case

Posted Mar 9, 2009 1:14 PM CST
By Martha Neil

Updated: A stunning number of new names will soon be added to the law firm layoffs list after announcements today by three major firms—K&L Gates; Morgan Lewis; and White & Case—that they are cutting a total of 731 attorneys and staff.

That brings the total number of law firm layoffs at well-known law partnerships, in the 10-day period starting on Feb. 27, to close to 2,500.

White & Case, which is responsible for well over half of the cuts, plans to lay off about 200 lawyers and 200 staff, according to an internal memo first reported by Above the Law. The firm also plans to restructure its partnership and has asked some 60 percent of its incoming first-year associate class to defer their start dates until 2010.

"These measures follow a thorough, strategic review of our business, including discussions with our regional section heads, global practice leaders and office executive partners," the memo provided to Above the Law states. "It is clear from this review that the deterioration of the global economy will continue to affect our clients and their demand for our services for the foreseeable future." White & Case also provided the ABA Journal with a statement (PDF).

Meanwhile, Morgan Lewis & Bockius is eliminating a total of 216 positions, 55 lawyers and 161 staff members, reports according to an internal memo (PDF) that has been provided to the ABA Journal.

"Unfortunately, we have reached the point where we believe that the greatest good for the greatest number of our colleagues will be achieved by eliminating some positions," the firm writes, "and bringing our overall numbers more in line with the realities of the present economic environment and what we believe will be the expectations of our clients in the future."

The bad news began this morning with news from K&L Gates that the firm is eliminating 115 people—36 associates and 79 staff members—from its roster in its United States offices.

"In addition, six lawyer posts are being considered for redundancy in the London office," writes P.J. Kalis, chairman and global managing partner at K&L Gates, on behalf of the firm's management committee in an internal memo. Sent this morning, according to Above the Law, it expresses regret for the layoffs and notes: "Good people will be searching for jobs."

Including the potential layoffs in London, the reductions represent 4.9 percent of the firm's associates and 4.3 percent of its staff.

K&L Gates confirmed that the information on ATL is accurate, but declined to comment further.

The 731 layoffs today at K&L Gates, Morgan Lewis and White & Case follow numerous others at major law firms earlier this month. Most recently, both Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (47 associates, 57 staff) and King & Spalding (37 attorneys, 85 staff) announced on Friday that they are cutting their rosters.

None of these five firms was included in an earlier "March mayhem" post that tallied just under 1,500 layoffs at well-known law firms announced between Feb. 27 and March 5.

And the layoffs continued on Tuesday, March 10, albeit at a somewhat less blistering pace. A total of four law firms let more than 200 lawyers and staff go, bringing the layoffs tally since Feb. 27 close to 2,700 by the end of the day. (A subsequent ABAJournal.com post gives the end-of-day March 10 round-up.)

Additional coverage:

Bloomberg: "White & Case, K&L Gates, Morgan Fire 291 Lawyers "

Last updated at 10:30 p.m. on March 10 to include information from subsequent ABAJournal.com post rounding up latest law firm layoffs.

Comments

1.

B. McLeod
Mar 9, 2009 1:44 PM CST

And they’re on the road with a mighty load, and a toolbox on their backs.

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2.

B. McLeod
Mar 9, 2009 2:58 PM CST

Comment removed by moderator.

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3.

tim
Mar 9, 2009 2:59 PM CST

Now I can go work in India for $1 a day thanks to the ABA.

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4.

B. McLeod
Mar 9, 2009 3:15 PM CST

@ 2 is but a pretender (and not a knowledgeable one).

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5.

AC
Mar 9, 2009 7:24 PM CST

Chatterbots.  Retail rules, people avoid empty stores.  People tend to comment more if some comments exist.  See?

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6.

Ricky Roma
Mar 9, 2009 9:35 PM CST

I keep reading the doomsday reports about “laid off” lawyers, and as I see the bodies pile up the only thing I feel for them is contempt.  Seriously.  Screw those losers. 

So why don’t I care?  Because in a pack of wolves, none of them give a flying frig about the one that can’t make it through the winter.  His DNA sucks and nobody wants their cubs mating with that crappy un-culled DNA next spring. 

Same thing for lawyers.  This is an overcrowded profession.  There are way too many law schools filled with way too many ivory tower morons who don’t have a damn clue how to practice law.  They didn’t teach any of this glut of lawyers a single worthwhile thing while they were bleeding them dry.  Law school looked like a path to riches, so the profession attracted the worst of the worst.  Social misfits, mental defectives, people who didn’t know what to do with themselves, people who went to law school to impress their parents, and a fair helping of women seeking their MRS degree.  Barely a shred of business savvy, people skills, or ethics manages to stuck to the bottom of the outgoing class’ shoes at my law school, and from what I have seen in this profession, it wasn’t just mine that failed to separate the wheat from the chaff. 

Here is how you can assure that you never get laid off as a lawyer: Easy as A,B,C.

A = ALWAYS have a book of your own business.  Lawyers serve clients.  That is how it works.  If you are a first year associate, you damn well should be cultivating your own book of business.  Even if you have to take in a couple of low-bono clients, have someone who says that YOU are their lawyer—not just your firm.  However, remember that if you get laid off with a book of business that represents even half your current salary, your reduced overhead will mean that you can actually keep making money while your business expands. 

B = BE COOL AND COMPETENT.  Don’t be a douche and don’t do crappy work:  You know who starves as a lawyer?  Losers and douches.  That’s who.  I know people who can’t make it as solos.  You know why they can’t make it?  Nobody likes them.  If three good, well-respected lawyers like you, you will have the crumbs from their tables (at least) —which will pay the mortgage and the student loan payment.  If you practice as an unethical sleaze, you can forget about getting referrals.  If your work sucks, other lawyers in town know it.  When we have a few drinks at bar functions, we make fun of you guys who suck - and we crap on you unethical sleazes too.  Christ I’d love to name some goddamn names here, but watching you festering slugs fizzle with the salt of desperation sticking to your skin is satisfaction enough. 

C = COLLECT, COLLECT, COLLECT.  Collect three times your salary.  Your firm should pay you 1/3 of what you bring in.  Another third should be to cover your overhead.  The final third should be profit.  In really lean times, the profit can be cut into without laying anyone off.  If overhead is more than 1/3, then the firm is on its way into the crapper, and you should have your CV polished and ready to jump so that you can fire your weak boss.  I guarantee you that not a single lawyer who was laid off today collected even twice their own salary.  Losers. 

That’s all there is to NEVER being laid off. 

Of course, if you went from being milk fed in college to milk fed in law school to being milk fed as an associate, and now your milk went sour, you shouldn’t have been in this profession in the first place, loser.  Take your blue apron and say nice things to people as they come in the door. 

Now… if only we could see an equal number of layoffs of you complete waste-of-space bags of crap they call “law professors”, we might be on to a real market correction.  De-accredit the entire third and fourth tiers.  Let the states individually accredit their preferred lower-tier schools, but no more free pass just because you managed to lick the back of the ABA’s balls on a site inspection.  The Veterinarians do it, the doctors do it, its time for us to do it.  Law isn’t a profession for every James Lingk or George Aaronow.

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7.

B. McLeod
Mar 10, 2009 8:18 AM CST

Ricky, you’re being awfully hard on the losers, even if mostly correct.  As Harvey BirdSmack would say (if he still had credibility on Big Law issues), some firms don’t allow their “associates” to have their own book of business.  They want the “associates” to be available as drones for partner-assigned matters, and so hold the “associates” in business development stasis for 5-7 years (thereafter, wondering why the associates haven’t developed an adequate “book of business”).  Also, on “collections,” some firms want 4x.

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8.

B. McLeod
Mar 10, 2009 8:49 AM CST

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9.

tom
Mar 10, 2009 9:56 AM CST

Your firm should pay you 1/3 of what you bring in.

This is what our salary is based on at the firm for the next year.  At the end of the year he looks to see what I collected on and my salary for the next year is 1/3rd of that. 

Each year it goes up because I bring in more.  The 1/3rd profit is also a good buffer as mentioned in case things go slow for a month or two.

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10.

Ricky Roma
Mar 10, 2009 10:09 AM CST

McLeod,

You may be right.  But, if you are an associate somewhere that keeps you as a drone, then you’re still a loser for staying around.  And, while some firms want 4x, no firm would ever lay off an associate generating 3x. 

The fact is, nobody being laid off has anyone to blame but themselves.  They didn’t have the fire, the desire, or the savvy.  All they had was a good LSAT score, which got them into a good school, which got them a supposedly good job.  Now that the house of cars has fallen, the mentally weak will flop around like fish on a dried lake bed—the fate they deserve. 

I have no tolerance for weakness.  All laid off lawyers should either change professions or hang themselves.  The last thing we need is Harvard educated bottom feeders.

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11.

tim
Mar 10, 2009 12:35 PM CST

Thank you Obama for making the economy better.

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12.

sarah
Mar 10, 2009 9:32 PM CST

These people were laid off because their jobs went to India.  Their Senior Partners were too greedy to have compassion for the next generation of American Lawyers.  They sold out their own profession to bill junior associate rates while paying less than minimum wage to workers in India that aren’t even lawyers.  Thanks greedy bastards.

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13.

B. McLeod
Mar 10, 2009 11:17 PM CST

Everyone is so thankful today, it’s really heartwarming.

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14.

akman
Mar 11, 2009 8:32 AM CST

What do you have against hard working Indian’s doing legal work for America companies?

Indians need to eat too.

Keeping sending the work to India.  India will soon be the largest English speaking population in the world and have the highest number of lawyers.

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15.

MJ
Mar 11, 2009 7:53 PM CST

This economy is bring out the worst in us and I like it! I agree with some of what Ricky says, go Ricky. Too many of us are spoiled and used to being handed a paycheck. Like one poster said on this site a few months ago, a law degree is a license to hustle, use it. Stop crying because no one feels sorry for attorneys and doctors iin this economy who cry broke. Start your own practice.

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16.

B. McLeod
Mar 12, 2009 8:31 AM CST

I’ll bet Ricky’s office is like a Kilngon battle firm.  The attorneys probably communicate by getting right in each other’s faces, and growling their sentences out with a scowl.

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17.

john
Mar 12, 2009 11:24 AM CST

What will really be funny is when in 2010 the deferral hires come looking for their promised jobs and the firms tell them either sorry “still no jobs” or “we gave your promised job to a 2010 graduate”.  Boy did this economic bust really expose the financial frailties of big firms, namely the overhead they keep with little return on investment.  Is this India outsourcing thing really an issue as to attorney positions.  I would really like to see some data on that.  And do not tell me doc review work is attorney work.

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18.

Ben Dover
Mar 13, 2009 4:28 AM CST

I do not feel well when I read this.  What about our futures?  Will we become a 3rd world country?  Will we be able to afford what our parents had?  I don’t know.  We must do something.  Ideas, anyone?

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19.

tim
Mar 13, 2009 6:09 AM CST

Start your own busienss if you want to control your destiny.  Until then, you are a slave to your boss.

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20.

Shariff
Mar 13, 2009 6:46 AM CST

President Obama declared yesterday the national crisis is “not as bad as we think”

All you neocons need to stop whinning about jobs and money.  Listen to what the President says.  This is just a speed bump in the economy.

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21.

Stone
Mar 13, 2009 8:34 AM CST

But the crisis in the legal industry is much worse than we think. It’s been building for a while now. This is going to be a long term transition. The mass majority of new attys from ‘06 on will be hybrids, they will do more than simply practice law, unless they want to live in a box. Hybrids will be atty/_____. That is the future.

Your law degrees are losing more value by the day. In 2050, they will be what a College degree was in the 80s.

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22.

Andy the Lawyer
Mar 13, 2009 8:59 AM CST

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  If you can’t get work as a lawyer in America, do what our intrepid forefathers did.  Move to another country in search of a better life.  If the law jobs are outmigrating to India, follow them.  You’ll earn less money there, but your cost of living will be less.  show some courage and initiative!

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23.

JFD
Mar 13, 2009 9:12 AM CST

Hey Ricky Roma- Bet you feel better now getting all of that stuff off your chest.
You can probably cancel today’s therapy session.
As for the “wolves” analogy, you are off-base.
As an amateur naturalist, I know that a wolf pack cares more about its pack members than most humans care about each other.  And they mate in February having their pups in the Spring.

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24.

Ruthie
Mar 13, 2009 9:47 AM CST

No Sara @ 12. The associates aren’t all being laid off because their jobs went to India; most of them are being laid off because the BigLaw clients are discovering that for most of their legal needs, they can hire a solo or small firm practitioner for half the hourly rate charged by BigLaw, and get faster and better service.

And screw compassion. This isn’t social work.

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25.

Ruthie
Mar 13, 2009 9:53 AM CST

Yes, I am a solo practitoner. It’s hard as h*ll. Right now my idea of the “dream practice” is to do what I do now, but to be able to oursource my billing to the meanest s.o.b.s on Chagrin Blvd.

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26.

msc
Mar 13, 2009 11:06 AM CST

My boss reads this section religiously so as to deny raises to anyone who dares to ask. The big firms have over hired and overpaid associates for years because it made them money. It was a win win scenerio.
In the real world lawyers are not making that kind of money and still have student loans and living expenses equal to or more than their big firm counterparts. Smaller firms that do not have the big firm overhead are using the current layoffs as justification for freezing salaries, firing and doing away with benefits to increase their profit.

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27.

buzz burwell
Mar 13, 2009 11:12 AM CST

a lost job can make a lost soul; have some compassion and face the structural change in the profession; we are joining the rest of the world

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28.

Stone
Mar 13, 2009 11:13 AM CST

Exactly #26, that’s why firms don’t have to pay more than $45k. There are THOUSANDS who would take that work and do a comparable job. The salaries in this industry are going to undergo a massive adjustment. The billable hour is essentially die off. The great majority will have to have other work/careers to go along with being a lawyer.

Welcome to the 2050s

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29.

S. Kramer
Mar 13, 2009 12:40 PM CST

I’m of a different generation than most of the commentators to this news item.  I’ve got a small firm background and am now a partner in a mid-sized NYC firm.  I’ve invested a lot of my hours over the years in developing clients, and while my billable hours are occasionally criticized, my clients are loyal because they know I don’t watch the clock and that I only bill them for time spent solving their problems.  There’s a lot to be said for repeat business.

When I have spoken to law students at my alma mater about careers in international law, I have told them that they have big choices to make.  We weren’t saddled with the level of debt you young lawyers have at graduation.  The difference between small firm earnings and BigLaw earnings when I started out was 30%, not 80% as it is today (I make about the same as a 5th year associate in a large firm after more than 30 years of practice).  The rules of the game were switched on me when capital markets work became all important in the mid 1980’s.

But the real choice, one that has been all too often overlooked, is that the BigLaw option is by and large a setting in which the lawyers work for the firm, producing a product packaged as the billable hour.  On the other hand, in a small firm environment, all lawyers are working for the client.  We gear our work to providing answers and giving useful, practical advice that - unfortunately - we bill in a measurement unit called hours.  Of course, my bills are more a work of art than a mathematical computation, because I spend a great deal of time figuring out what the product should be worth to the client.

While I am having a hard time putting my kids through college (they’re public school products here in Manhattan), I nevertheless pity some of you BigLaw associates who have never really had a chance to learn what the product should be.  I feel that my personal worth to my clients is a lot greater than the 20% of the BigLaw partner’s income that I make.  My client portfolio isn’t huge, but it’s loyal, and just as everyone followed me here when I changed firms 3+ years ago, they’ll follow me elsewhere if my job is threatened.  Yes, finances are tough, but if people stop investing in the stock market, I’ll still be around.

The purpose of my ramblings is to urge my younger counterparts to use this time to consider what it is you really want to make of your careers.  You can’t be outsourced to India if your product is more than a fungible billable hour lost in the bottom line of an astronomical bill.

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30.

The Practice of Law is Work of Art for the Smart
Mar 13, 2009 2:33 PM CST

29, you lost me with the notion of your client invoice being a work of art rather than a math equation. Maybe because this a Friday, but you either bill or you don’t bill, you either write off a portion or you don’t write off a portion. Mabye you meant you law practice as a work of art or the final product as a work of art? Don’t know, but you provided me with a laugh today.

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31.

DCEsq.
Mar 14, 2009 11:12 AM CST

Perhaps these 731 fired attorneys can gain employment as public service attorneys and thereby provide useful services that will help alleviate the suffering of the more helpless members of our society wracked by the current economic conditions that led to this wave of attorney dismissals.

These 731 attorneys can do this, practice law as a “profession” rather than a “business” if, of course, they fail to obtain higher paying jobs.  Otherwise, there is no need for sympathy here.  These attorneys, who chose to practice law as a business, made the same choices that the workers in the financial sector have made, namely, to become cogs in a huge, impersonal machine driven primarily, if not exclusively, by the imperative to earn as much profit as quickly as possible.

Sure, there is some sympathy to be expressed when a fellow attorney finds himself with so many bills to pay and no income - but what are these bills?  Related to this group conversation (I am not referring here to the infantile commentators here) is the notion that excessive consumption is also an aspect of the aftermath of the massive job losses.  Also, the high costs of a legal education become even more glaring in this environment, as one commentator noted.

So, for me, a constructive consequence of these times is to reflect on: (1) how attorneys view the practice of law either as a profession or a business, and the consequences that follow; (2) the feasibility of living within one’s means; and (3) the problem of legal education costs and how it can be addressed.

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32.

Higher Ground
Mar 14, 2009 12:21 PM CST

I can’t believe the mean spirited comments on this site. Calling unemployed attorneys losers and saying that they have nobody to blame but themselves. Bashing this profession is cliche and most people that participate in it are either ignorant or those who couldn’t make the grades to be lawyers, i.e. jealous. I feel truly bad for all the young attorneys who spent years of their lives working hard to make the grades in undergrad, make the grade in the LSAT, fight their way thru law school and the Bar, arriving in a dead economy. Don’t blame lawyers or hate them, they are people too. And as an attorney I am sick and tired of having my profession bashed, the nastiest commentators on this site are lucky we are not face to face because you know you are cowards.

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33.

Kalifornia Arnold
Mar 15, 2009 3:04 AM CST

Even the law firms in India have to Calcutta back due to the recession

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34.

B. McLeod
Mar 15, 2009 9:47 PM CST

Yes.  Prices are quite dear at the New Delhi.

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35.

shariff
Mar 16, 2009 6:59 AM CST

Indian lawyers worker harder than american lawyers.

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36.

Ricky Roma
Mar 17, 2009 5:37 PM CST

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37.

Ricky Roma
Mar 19, 2009 11:33 AM CST

Higher Ground,

I did make the grade to be a lawyer (and went to a top school too). 

The problem is not that people bash the profession.  The problem is that the profession is infected with too many losers.  This market correction is a good thing.  Perhaps those losers will now go where they truly belong, and this profession can get back on track.

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