First to say -

The ship be sinking...

if your layoff is described as "performance based" (and is really a stealth layoff) as opposed to economic based - do you still get severance?

BI is notorious for giving stellar reviews, then just deciding to fire associates for "performance" reasons.

The question is not if, but over/under on number let go. There are still plenty of Klett Rooney guys left there that have never fit in at BI.

3 - the "stealth" aspect *is* your severance. That is, they tell you need to find another job w/in 3 months but you can keep your firm email for that time and if anyone asks them, you still work there--but you don't really do any "work" for that 3 months.

Did anyone see the Amlaw piece on the Latham lawyer who represented a man suing the Feds for spying on him? She sure is cute http://www.lw.com/Attorneys.aspx?page=AttorneyBio&attno=03190

5 - thanks - that clears up a lot...

1Ls are scared to death http://www.blackbooklegal.com

Wtf is a "Harrisburg"?

Proskauer profits pp down 10% as of year ended last October 31. Possibility of additional layoffs under review.

Second shoe....dropped.

Biglaw partner BS comment of the day:

"Kurtz Buchanan told the [attorneys] that laying off staff was not because of the economy but good planning."

Good planning like Bernie Madoff's phantom trades.

these midlaw firms are vicious. makes biglaw look positively warm and cuddly. layoffs are fine, but who are they fooling with this planning BS? rhetoric up the ywazoo.

at least DLA had the courage to announce it was econonomic, and gave 3 months severance. these BI clowns would sell out their own mother for an extra $5 per year in PPP.

BI's logic here is no better than what I'd expect Rob Robbins to say when he gets fired for his big faux pas last week.

"I didn't lose my job due to my lack of discretion, rather, I needed to go on a diet and now conveniently I can't afford food and will lose lots of weight."

Like a lot of Pennsylvania firms, BI has a large number of U Penn State graduates and likes to hold onto its ivy leaguers. I wouldn't worry too much about those people.

if BI folds, UPenn State's employment numbers could push it into the fourth tier (if it isn't already there?)

Howdy do I'm Colonel Kurtz
Bald and fat like old Fred Mertz
Watch me do a hula dance
To shake the egg rolls from my pants!

16, I thought BI only hires 4th tier to begin with. I mean, what other firm has partners from Touro? Counsel ffrom Hofstra? Associates from Pace? Looks like the only way to get a job at B.I. is to go to a TTT or have a daddy who's already a partner there.

Buchanan Ingersoll sounds more like an industrial tool manufacturer than it does a law firm.

They are from $hittsburgh, PA. Their cross-town rival is Pete Kalis from K&L Gates.

They are from $hittsburgh, PA. Their cross-town rival is Pete Kalis from K&L Gates.

Isn't U of Pitt ivy like Penn State? BI has a lot of those too.

This is nothing new. The NY office has recently been doing both stealth layoffs and stealth demotions. They forced the managing shareholder out of her position and replaced her with another shareholder's kid. However, before they could do that, they had to force the shareholder who was next in line for the managing shareholder position out of the firm altogether. It's like Hamlet over here.

Christ. Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the f**king Peace Corps.

22 - Neither are ivies. UPitt is tier-1. UPenn State is tier-3/4.

22--the ivy is U of Philadelphia, not U of Penn State.

isn't it "micheal" not "michael" in "Micheal Ray Richardson"

Anyway, ship be sinking. sky's the limit.

UPenn Stater Here: I don't know anyone in my class going to BI. Most of the people I know are going to V10, beotchessss

Elie, you need to call out BI on their bull. They've been doing stealth lay-offs of attorneys since October. I have the severance agreement to prove it. The number of attorney lay-offs are already well in the double digits. Nolan is full of it.

29--what office and year? NY?

closing the comment thread is the best things that ever happened to this site. Ninety percent of the comments are so useless, inane, incorrect, and ignorant, that it makes me feel deep shame. I always regret reading them, because it makes me regret (more than usual) that I am a lawyer. If you insist on wasting time in front of a computer, couldn't you just get involved in one of those online role-playing games and save us all from the spiritual torment of your un-clever, mean-spirited ramblings?

The firm admits that attorney head count is down 50-60 since this time last year. Not all are stealth layoffs - e.g., several patent types in Alexandria and the former Silicon Valley offices have departeed voluntarily to other firms, in-house or to the USPTO. LIfe in IP has been relatively steady over the last year, at least for attorneys, even with the departure of a couple of partners and several associates to Crowell Moring last year.

31, I think you take the prize in "ramblings." Best of luck with your "spiritual torment."

"...eliminated about 25 to 30 administrative operations positions..."

You don't know how many positions you eliminated? How can you not know how many people you laid off? Wasn't this lay off part of months of careful planning and evaluation?

31, "makes me feel deep shame," "makes me regret"... Your post "makes me" think you don't know how to write. No wonder why you're in PiTTTsburgh.

35 - actually I'm not. I'm just a person who thinks you are probably a typical spoiled, overeducated crybaby, naive about the world outside of your tiny, circumscribed life. Let me know when you publish your first novel--I can't wait to catch a glimpse of your incredible writing skills.

29 here: I know of at least 2 attorneys in NY who were let go...but it was unclear whether they were performance-based. The stealth economic lay offs i am aware of happened in other offices.

36, I'm too busy publishing law review articles to waste my time on a novel. Is that what you TTTs in Pittsburgh firms spend your time writing?

Seems like you're pretty proud to be "publishing law review articles." How much does that pay these days? I don't remember getting paid for it when I did it. Anyway, good luck finding a job!

39, you moron, I have a job. A job that encourages scholarly publications. Oh, and assuming you're also 36, lets review your prose:

-- "about the world outside of your tiny, circumscribed life"

-- "to catch a glimpse"

The best thing about TTTers trying to sound educated is that they prove to the world that they're not.

31 - godzuki here saying after having lived on earth in the deep seas for hundreds of years, i've learned a few things. among those things include an understanding that no one else has control over my feelings but me - e.g., no one else can make me angry, happy, sad, shameful, etc. but me. additionally, i've learned that all the comments on this board have no meaning except that which I decide to give them. in short, we are each the master of our own universe.

Thanks Godzuki! Yay!!!!!

Another crap firm has layoffs. These firms (Kaye, Buchanan, etc.) never should have grown so much. Wake me up when the layoffs really start to hit the V20 (Latham not included).

Been a Biglaw secretary forever. Employment agency suggested I apply for a federal government job and wished me luck.

43 - some would argue that firms like Buchanan haven't grown enough to remain competitive. Expect Buchanan to be actively trying to merge its way to a 1000+ lawyer firm within the next several years - or die trying. Otherwise, Buchanan and others similarly situated will be tempting targets by bigger firms with bigger PPP looking for established partners and practice groups, especially IP.

The firms that seem to be doing the best are the ones that stayed stable - the big DC-based firms. They could have grown like wildfire, but they took a more cautious approach. And you don't see them laying off people in droves.

I ended up getting into a battle royale with the last guy I laid off. He won.

46. Not really. Those firms are the most notorious for use of the stealth layoff. Two associates here, three there, a couple of counsel this week, a couple more at the end of the month, one or two more next month. One K-Street firm that would fit your description has been doing it that way for about a year now.

A "K Street firm," huh?

It is spelled "Pittsburgh" There is no school known as "UPenn State."
UPenn and Penn State U are two very different schools. UPenn is in Philadelphia and is a private Ivy League school with a law school. Penn State is the state school and it's law school is in Carlisle, Pa at Dickinson. Univerisity of Pittsburgh aka "Pitt" is also a state school. There is no University of Philadelphia. Please keep the general ignorance to a low roar.

elie sucks. bring marin back

pls handle thx

50= sad , slightly delusional UPenn State student.

52, 50 here.. nope. i go to the wharton school of law

Blank Rome asked senior staff members to cut back to 4 days per week.

#43 -- Wake me up before you go go.

50: You must be new here. The big city elitists that post in the comments have been having fun with Penn/Penn St. Just ignore them.

Buchanan Imbosol - where TTTers pretend to practice law.

56 = 50 trying to be clever and prop up his schtick.

everyone knows that the Philly UPenn State is a satellite campus of Upenn State carlisle (admittedly the Philly satellite campus has slightly lower admission criteria to make up for location, but they never admit it... Upenn Staters in Philly are the equivalent of Georgetown law night program students... it's a back door into the program.

GO STEELERS!

95% of people on this board,
I don't care where you work, how much you make, where you went to school, etc. your insecurities will ensure that you never have a happy life. Attempting to knock others down so as to make yourself feel better about your lot in life is pathetic and your posts show that you are bitter people! It's pathetic and it shows. You can probably count your good friends on one hand.

They were laying people off in the summer.

Many of you "hoity toity" people from Tier 1 Schools or Ivy League Schools need to think about what you are typing before you type it. There is no school called U Penn State. There is University of Pennsylvania which is Ivy League, and there is Penn State which is a state school. Then you also have University of Pittsburgh aka PITT. Yes, there are some 4th Tier partners and associates at BI, but there are also some at Reed Smith, KL & Gates, Blank Rome, Jones Day, Morgan Lewis, Pepper Hamilton, etc. I don't think a firm should be judged based on what school the partners went to. More importantly, it definitely shouldn't be judged by people who don't even know the difference between Penn State and U Penn.