Staff Layoff Watch: Roundup Number 2

Yesterday’s staff layoff post generated a lot of tips and rumors. Please keep them coming. It appears that staffs are taking it on the chin even worse than associates and partner profit margins.

While we are still playing “fact or fiction” with some of the rumors, we can now report these additional staff reductions around the world of Biglaw.

First off, Julie Kay at the National Law Journal reports that Squire Sanders laid off a number of staff from a variety of positions:

Alvin Davis, managing partner of Squire Sanders’ Miami office, said on Friday that Miami employees laid off at the firm on Thursday include “a couple runners, some staffers and a few people in accounting.”

Times are so bad firms can’t even afford the accountants who tell them how bad times are.

There were conflicting reports as to whether any attorneys got caught in the crossfire:

But while Davis said no lawyers were laid off, sources inside the firm said that lawyers indeed had been laid off, but were still working at the firm until they find jobs elsewhere.

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After the jump, more staff layoff news.


A number of tipsters are reporting similar cuts at Willkie Farr:

Wanted to let you know they laid off staff this past week – I think around Thursday. It was in positions such as word processing, secretarial, and mail room.

As with Squire Sanders, while many people commented on the reality of staff reductions, we don’t yet know the hard numbers of how many staffers were laid off overall. But at Willkie we understand that the cuts were focused in the New York office. We do not believe that any attorneys were let go.

Willkie Farr did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Rumors about massive staff layoffs at Kilpatrick Stockton have been making the rounds. Based on multiple independent sources, we now feel comfortable reporting that on the order of 70 employees were laid off from K&S last week.

The firm is not yet confirming this information, but we understand that all of the cuts were in the K&S Atlanta office.

Some staff cuts are an indication of additional belt tightening by firms. But when you lay off 70 support staffers, you have to eventually get around to trimming the attorneys the staff was supporting. Right?

Keep us posted on additional staff news at tips@abovethelaw.com.

Squire Sanders is latest firm to trim staff [National Law Journal]

Earlier: Staff Layoff Watch: A Roundup