Law Firms
Profits Drop by Half at Immigration Firm Fragomen
Posted Feb 27, 2009, 08:02 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Profits have plummeted by 50 percent at the immigration law firm Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy.
The firm’s profits per equity partner dropped to $916,000 in 2008, down from $1.9 million in 2007, the Am Law Daily reports.
Firm chairman Austin Fragomen told the Am Law Daily that profits skewed high in 2007 because of a change in regulations on permanent resident status, creating “endless hours” of work and a 38 percent increase in revenues. The 2008 numbers aren’t all that different from 2006, when profits per partner were about $1 million, he said.
The story offers some reasons for the decline.
A Labor Department audit of the firm’s advice on labor certifications—a probe that was later dropped—made business development “a difficult chore,” Fragomen told Am Law. Then the downturn in the financial services market led to a drop in overseas hiring and visa applications.
Revenues didn’t keep up with Fragomen’s “hiring jag,” last year, the story says. The firm added 50 lawyers and a dozen equity partners. In November, the firm retrenched, laying off seven or eight associates and about 50 staffers.
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