Nationwide Layoff Watch: Winstead Winnows Support Staff

This latest layoff news may not be super-exciting to the associates among you, since it relates to staff rather than lawyer layoffs.The East and West Coast snobs will dismiss it as news from “flyover land.”
But as we previously observed, staff layoffs “serve as a ‘canary in the mine’ of sorts, with respect to a law firm’s financial health.” And the firm in question, Winstead, is one of Texas’s largest firms.
So this news merits mention (on a somewhat slow news day). From the Dallas Morning News:

Texas-based Winstead PC will lay off 20 support staff employees in its Dallas office, chief executive Denis Braham said Wednesday.

The firm also let a few associate attorneys go in the restructuring, but Mr. Braham said the firm typically cuts some associates each year.

Our tipster expresses skepticism: “Bulls**t. This is the same firm that came out after salaries increased last time to 160 and said, ‘we are not raising.’ I think they later caved.”
Winstead to lay off 20 in Dallas office [Dallas Morning News]
Winstead Says Yes to Bonuses, No to Raises [Texas Lawyer]

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