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Staff Attorneys Getting Laid Off; Dechert Is Latest Example

Posted Feb 26, 2009 8:59 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Dechert has laid off 10 more lawyers, this time making the cuts in its staff attorney ranks.

The layoffs represent about one-fourth of the law firm’s staff attorneys, Above the Law reports. The blog says many large firms are cutting staff attorneys and offers one recent example: Layoffs in January at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom.

Dechert confirmed that the 10 lawyers were dismissed for economic reasons, the Legal Intelligencer reports. Dechert laid off 19 lawyers in the so-called “Bloody Thursday” layoffs by eight large law firms revealed on Feb. 12. The firm also cut 72 U.S. staffers and 15 from more in London in December.

Comments

1.

Larry
Feb 26, 2009 9:04 AM CST

I work for a small firm.  Everyone is an associate or a partner.  What the hud is a staff attorney?

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2.

B. McLeod
Feb 26, 2009 9:30 AM CST

Larry, Yolanda Young will be happy to explain in detail.  From her recent pleading, I gather it is somewhat like a legal sharecropper.  You have to “work off the clock,” and probably get paid in script, only negotiable at the “company store.”  Also, the desks would be set up in “converted filerooms,” which Yolanda speculates do not meet OSHA standards.  Anyone that complains gets the tar and feathers, and then their bonus is pressed down to a measly $5,000.

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