Why Minn. Firms Are Laying People Off, Despite Respectable Partner Profits
Partners at Minnesota’s two largest law firms made between $535,000 and $585,000 last year, but profitability isn’t protecting employees at those firms.
Faegre & Benson has laid off 29 lawyers, and Dorsey & Whitney has laid off 55 support workers and cut associates’ pay by 10 percent, Minnesota Lawyer reports.
Cost-cutting is necessary, experts told the publication, because partners shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of declining revenues caused by the economic downturn. If firms don’t take action, rainmaking partners seeing declining compensation will jump to other law firms for more money.
“It’s happening right now,” Dan DiLuccio of legal consulting firm Altman Weil told Minnesota Lawyer. “Firms are actively looking for rainmakers.”
Lawyer coach Roy Ginsburg said it’s surprising that the Minnesota firms have held layoffs to a minimum. The firms are either less willing to lay off employees, or they have not been as hard-hit as law firms on the East and West coasts. Instead, Minnesota firms are opting for salary cuts, he said.
