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Associate Life Survey: Precarious Positions

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 12:49 PM - By Justin Bernold

128293527057141124halp.jpgWe received over 800 responses to last week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on layoffs, and the results are not pretty.

About 30% of respondents reported at least some level of involuntary departures at their firms.

While only about 4% of respondents said that their firms were actually conducting public layoffs, another 18% accused their firms of conducting “stealth layoffs.”

Of course, it’s possible that some of these “stealth layoffs” are really based on performance, a standard which tends to get tougher in a tough economy. But less than 3.5% of respondents said that their firms had been asking people to leave solely based on their performance, suggesting that associates are much more likely to blame firm performance for any downsizings.

Survey Responses: Is your firm conducting layoffs?

Yes, and they’re being public about it.4.20%
Yes, but they’re “stealth layoffs”.17.92%
People have been asked to leave, but it’s performance-related.3.46%
The firm is laying off support staff, paralegals or staff attorneys, but not associates.  4.45%
No, but the firm is pushing back start dates.0.62%
No, but I’m afraid they’re coming.6.06%
No, everything’s fine.53.28%
I don’t know.10.01%

See who’s getting hit where, after the jump.


butbut128536546962973343.jpgThe stealth layoffs were most widely reported in Atlanta and Philadelphia, by 30% of respondents in each city.

New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles were also a bit higher than the national average, with 21%, 22%, and 23% of respondents in those cities, respectively, reporting stealth layoffs.

Not surprisingly, respondents who reported layoffs at their firms said a number of transactional practices had been affected by the cuts, with 39% saying that general corporate practitioners had been affected, 23% reporting cuts in structured finance, 18% citing downsizing in M&A, and 15% describing job insecurity in securities. Another 35% said that the real estate teams had been affected.

But the litigators will help prop up the firm, right?

Right?

Well … see the photo above. 37% of respondents who reported layoffs said that cuts at their firms were affecting the litigators.

And even geek is becoming less chic at some firms. Surprisingly, even though the job market for patent attorneys remains quite robust — and several associates at IP-focused firms like Fish & Richardson and Finnegan Henderson reported that their firms are doing just fine — almost 8% of respondents who did report layoffs at their firms said that their patent groups had been affected. This is probably more likely for patent prosecutors at large multi-practice firms, where their work might be described as “traditionally less lucrative,” than it is for patent litigators.

So where’s the job security these days? Perversely, the combination of death and taxes is the safest bet. Less than 2% of respondents said that trusts and estates practices were affected by layoffs at their firms. Tax all by itself, however, fared a bit worse, with almost 8% of respondents reporting that tax attorneys at their firms had been let go.

—
Justin Bernold is a Director at Lateral Link, the sponsor of this Associate Life Survey.

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