Staff Layoff Watch: Gibson Dunn Lays Off 36 Staff
The economy is continuing to shed legal jobs. Today’s news comes from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. A GDC spokesperson just furnished Above the Law with this statement:
Due to the challenging market environment that has affected our clients and the demand for legal services, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has reduced its staff positions by 36 across the Firm’s nine U.S. offices. While this is a modest reduction in staff relative to many peer firms, it was nonetheless made reluctantly and with great regret. Now, more than ever, however, we must take appropriate steps to serve our clients in the most cost-efficient manner.
As we’ve said many times, legal support staffs continue to feel the brunt of the retraction in the legal market.
This is the latest cost cutting move from Gibson Dunn, which recently scaled back its summer program to ten weeks. Hopefully, it will be the last?
Good luck to the recently displaced staff at GDC.
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of staff layoffs
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Wow. We know we will have reached legal Armageddon if GDC, the best-managed firm in the country, starts laying off attorneys.
We expect the aggressors to use anything, we don't rule out that in their depression at being vanquished, those losers will become hysterical and commit even more folly.
Hah, and they upset WilmerHale in the ATL March Madness competition.
there goes my bracket
Best of luck to all laid-off today.
finally, GD&C! NY to 190k
Still awaiting an announcement from Gibson about start dates...
ATL - why didnt you follow up with them re: associate start dates?
sorry to staff ... hope it doesn't hit attorneys ... GDC is still the best in California
Why are there so many idiots who have the reply 'first or 1 or 3?' No wonder so many lawyers are getting fired. You deserve it.
Was the Hunton meeting all smoke and no fire? you can't tell us it's going to happen and then not report back!
eyyyyyyy... Gibson Dunn was my client.
lies 12
NONE REMAIN
who be hooch?
16 --- GDC's only legitimate rival for the best in CA fired 200 attorneys and countless staff --- I would say that GDC is still the best
How does the economy shed jobs?
twentieth!!!!!!!
Baghdad Bob has a lot of potential--let's see if he rises to the occasion.
The hot wire hanger of justice has found another home at GDC.
Former Paul Hastings associate with a sore ass
ATL,
Can you do a post on what "staff" are? Are they contract attorneys? secretaries? janitors? what?
TY
Still waiting on Hunton news. Tips?
Since Gibson didn't mention severance, I suspect that I'm not needed.
WHO THE FUCK REMAINS?
When I was a paralegal at Gibson Dunn (before I went to law school) I had to masturbate on the conference room chairs before meetings.
Shortened summer program and staff layoffs? I can't believe they beat WilmerHale.
Did Travis get fired?
Start dates for GDC?
this post is depressing...more of law school students turned Playmates please!
GDC is in the midst of shuffling around associates - we will see how long the firm will allow fourth years to do a first year's work. Especially when they end up refiling documents several times due to mistakes!
GDC is in the midst of shuffling around associates - we will see how long the firm will allow fourth years to do a first year's work. Especially when they end up refiling documents several times due to mistakes!
GDC is in the midst of shuffling around associates - we will see how long the firm will allow fourth years to do a first year's work. Especially when they end up refiling documents several times due to mistakes!
GDC wouldn't set mandatory 2010 start dates this late in the game. They wouldn't treat their incoming associates that poorly.
WOULD THEY?!?!?!????!??!?11/!?1/1//1
The GDC v. Wilmer match-up wasn't an upset. GDC is a well managed, conservative-growth firm. Wilmer is a house of cards that has been a few cards short of a full deck since the merger.
35 - way to not understand the shift key.
I hear GDC is in the midst of shuffling around associates.
king and spalding sucks - oh, wait, this isn't king and spalding ... who cares, they still suck. they are pushing start dates for new associates to jan 2010. also heard partners are taking pay cuts of up to 10%
did anything come of that fried frank partners meeting?
QUINN REMAINS!!!
I keep seeing posts about Gibson pushing back start dates for incoming associates. Can anyone actually verify this? I wish Gibson would just say one way or the other so that it’s cleared up.
GDC START DATES!!!
I just got a letter in the mail. GDC is giving the option of a November 16th or November 30th start date (2009, obviously) for incoming associates. It is also offering "an interest free loan of up to a maximum of four weeks of your base compensation." The loan must be repaid within 6 months of commencing work.
43, and what if you don't "commence work"? Do you get to keep it as "severance." It sounds like a generous gesture and Im sure it is intended as such, but it also has a convenient element of Planning Ahead. Or maybe the firm will accellerate that and have a lien put on your vespa.
44 - I think the loan is made with the assumption that you will commence work. Let's be real here though, a 4 week loan is pretty much weak sauce.
can anyone else confirm 43?
GDC apparently sucks like all other BigLaw firms. It just took their supersized egos a lot longer to admit it.
A four week loan is not "weak sauce," considering that the start dates have only been pushed back a month or so. I started in November at GDC several years ago, and I didn't get a loan.
GDC has been doing stealth layoffs on a pretty large scale for months. i don't know why people keep forgetting that.
48, I agree, its very generous, especially in the circumstances. Unless, of course, it is a preemptive severance payment that effectively cuts off any possible negotiation come November. But one should always take this kind of loan. At the very least, send it to TheStudentLoanPeople. If they fire you, what will they do, sue a 26-year old with no job and 150K in debt?
PAUL WEISS REMAINS!!!!
Yo asshole! This motha' fucka's dead. Ain't no Chris Angel Mindfreak, David Blane trapdoor horse shit jumpin' off here!
43, What office are you in?
If true, the loan is on top of the 10K bar stipend. Not terrible at all.
43 ---- What office are you in?
49 --- Provide a source --- where? who?
47 ---- A November start dates is a whole lot better than a January start date and the year long deferral option (forced choice) adopted by Gibson's peers
I just got the same letter as 43. Start either Nov. 16 or 30.
43 and 57 - WHICH OFFICE?
OFFICE????
which office????
$13K Bar Stipend, November Start Dates, and a 4-week pay interest free loan? Where do I sign up? GDC is a class act.
49, what are the numbers for the purported stealth layoffs at GDC?
I can confirm GD&C's stealth layoff in its LA office. Two of my callback interviewers, both of whom were junior associates in the real estate group, had left the firm sometime between Dec. 2008 and Feb. 2009.
People have been let go, but it seems unclear whether their departures can be classified as "layoffs." For example, a mid-level associate was let go, but s/he was not liked by the partners and did subpar work. It may be that GDC is finding this a good time to get rid of dead weight in some of its offices.
No, per our conversation, they were laid off for economic reasons. It is no coincidence that both of them worked in the real estate group and they couldn't make their hours and were helping the corporate group do doc review. I was there in september and both of them expressed concerns of their future at the firm.
They deserved to be fired if they "expressed concerns of their future at the firm" during your callback interview.
It's so exciting to see GDC finally make it on ATL with layoff news!! I can't wait to start this fall!!
More like Gibson DONE!
Gibson will always be 2nd tier. It is only a matter of time before they layoff attorneys.
69: Latham associate.
69: Laid off and bitter Latham associate with pequeno peter.
confirm stealth layoffz at GDC
Are the supposed stealth layoffs limited to the real estate group?
NO ONE CAN CONFIRM THE STEALTH LAYOFFS --- if you don't make your hours, you're likely to be laid off ....
69: Latham is certainly a tier below GDC --- it's actually hard to get hired at GDC (unlike Latham), and GDC hasn't screwed its associates and incoming attorneys like Latham has .. if you're a Latham attorney, I'd bet anything you didn't get a Gibson offer
Elie is stupid, fat and lazy.
I confirm that they have been stealth lay-offs at GDC NY, on a small scale though.
Gibson new start dates --- very reasonable and much better than the deferral crap other firms have been forcing on their incoming attorneys
Can people confirm which offices have sent this letter? Is it all offices?
A friend of mine in the NY office received the start date letter.
Los Angeles office
For any incoming Gibson 1st years who haven't received the letter yet:
"This letter is to advise you that the fall start dates for new associates will be November 16 and November 30, 2009. We will make every effort to accommodate your first choice date but please understand that the number of new associates starting on each date will need to be evenly distributed for administrative purposes, so we reserve the right to make adjustments between those dates if necessary. In addition, and in order to defray any potential financial hardship associate with the delayed start dates, we are pleased to offer to all incoming associates this fall an interest free loan of up to a maximum of four weeks of your base compensation. If you elect to take the loan, whatever amount you choose to receive will be fully repaid to the firm in equal monthly installments automatically deducted from your paychecks during your first six months of employment."
DC office, same letter.
#25. What do you mean no severance? There was severance for some Gibson staff and not others. Many of the staff laid off had been (or were on) recent disability. One floater was laid off while on disability and had been with firm 10 years, worked for partner until he retired and had good reviews-told no position to return to. Another floater (with firm approx. 4 years) has been on disability for 18 months running and was not let go. What do you make of this?