Times So Tough, Atty Had to Lay Off Wife; Others See Business Boom
The economy is so dismal that one of the biggest and best-known law firms in Florida, 1,150-attorney Holland & Knight, cut 70 attorneys and 243 staff members in two rounds of layoffs last May and last month. Meanwhile, at one of the state’s smallest practices, Hollywood real estate attorney Fred Hochszstein had to let his own wife go.
But some local firms are still thriving, even as a legal consultant predicts ongoing difficulty for many in the legal profession in South Florida, reports the Miami Herald in a lengthy article on the state of the legal economy there.
”Before this is all said and done, law firms are going to learn a painful lesson, which is diversification,” Joe Ankus of Ankus Consulting in Weston tells the newspaper. “The boutiques who specialize in corporate and real estate work and didn’t save for a rainy day, they’re feeling pain. There is no question there are going to be more firm failures, attorney layoffs and a trend toward marketplace destruction.”
Who’s doing well right now? Plaintiffs lawyers, litigation boutiques and those benefiting from Miami’s role as the gateway to Latin American entities involved in United States enterprises, the Herald reports.
Business is booming, for instance, at 17-attorney Astigarraga Davis, which specializes in international arbitration, fraud, and financial services litigation and asset recovery. Managing partner Jose Astigarraga describes the firm, which also represents the government of China, Norway, Vietnam and some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as “‘ultra, ultra busy.”
