Lawyers ‘in the Middle’ at Most at Risk of Firings

At big law firms, midlevel lawyers are at the greatest risk of being laid off in the economic downturn.

Dan Weiner, co-chair of the personnel committee at Hughes Hubbard, told the Wall Street Journal Law Blog that junior associates may be safer than their more senior counterparts because their abilities are still being judged.

“You can’t identify that early who’s not going to be a good performer,” he told the blog. Firing new associates following the expensive recruitment process would be “cutting them before you know their performance capabilities, which is not good business.”

Besides senior associates, lawyers most at risk are junior partners and of counsel. That’s because law firms facing tough economic times first scrutinize “expensive people who are underutilized,” he told the blog. He cautioned that he was speaking in general and not specifically about his law firm.