Layoffs
Holland & Knight Lays Off 70 Legal Secretaries
Posted May 21, 2008, 05:51 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Holland & Knight is laying off 70 legal secretaries, about 5 percent of its support staff.
The move comes after a small decline in the firm’s gross revenue last year, the Daily Business Review reports. Firm spokeswoman Susan Bass told the publication the layoffs were a result of a review of the firm’s books.
"It was just too many people," she said. "We had some redundancies and inefficiencies."
Related Coverage:
ABAJournal.com: "Bingham Lays Off 17 Bay Area Staffers"
Updated at 4:02 p.m. Thursday, May 22 to include related coverage.
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Comments
Posted by Former Big Law Partner - 4 months, 3 weeks, 22 hours, 22 minutes ago
Another casualty of higher and higher associate salaries (the other being the exodus of underpaid non-equity partners). I have a suggestion: instead of laying off one staff employee, you could reduce a first year associate’s salary from $160K to $110K. That would still provide a substantial income to a first year graduate but also eliminate the need to fire an employee who now receives no income. I am not suggesting that law firms retain bad employees....but if this is a money issue (and since HK had a drop in revenues this year, I suspect this is), then there are better ways to accomplish revenue savings.
Posted by Peter L. Wanger - 4 months, 3 weeks, 21 hours, 21 minutes ago
I have not used a secretary for the last six years I have been house counsel for a real estate investor and I used a secretary very little in the last 10 years of my 26 year practice in a law firm. Younger lawyers know computers, software and the other office machines and don’t really need a secretary. They’ve been producing documents, envelopes and the like for years.
Posted by Decline to State - 4 months, 3 weeks, 21 hours, 3 minutes ago
An irresponsible attitude from you and the firm. As an H&K associate, I can tell you that the legal secretaries’ jobs are far more than simply moving paper now. They are professionals, without whom the associates would spend time billing clients for tasks that do not require a law degree, such as coordinating meetings, obtaining papers from the court, working with clients to be sure their needs are being met when their attorney is not available. But that is exactly what H&K wants--to bill clients for every minute spent on their matters at an attorney’s rate instead of simply adding it into overhead. That way, perhaps they can afford the absurd salaries they pay and get their PPP over $400,000. So much for being a client service organization.
Posted by stickler - 4 months, 3 weeks, 15 hours, 38 minutes ago
It WAS a money issue..reducing staff only shows the client that matters will take longer and cost them more. associates can afford at thier level to live on 100k while they navigate thier carrier. attorneys come and go..usually staffers want to stay and get better where they are.
Posted by bg - 4 months, 3 weeks, 14 hours, 8 minutes ago
My firm has been cutting back and consolidating its support staff for a few years now. First it was the librarian, then the real estate paralegals and secretaries. The firm has decided that it is cheaper to pay a few hours of overtime a week to a couple of secretaries and be tightly staffed, rather than have a full time person and two people who are not busy all the time. They were also hoping to teach a couple of attorneys to be more efficient, but it is not working. The only area we have been expanding, and still need to expand, is our collection department. It has more work than ever!