Layoffs

Impending Layoff Watch: Orrick Ax To Fall This Week

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On Friday and over the weekend, we received a lot of information about impending layoffs at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. The firm has declined to comment for this story, but we believe that significant layoffs will take place at Orrick this week.

On Friday, many people noticed that the Orrick’s chairman, Ralph Baxter, was darting in and out of partners’ offices in New York City. It’s not unusual for a chairman to check in with his partnership. But in this climate, on the very day that Latham laid off 440 people, the chairman’s conspicuous presence in NYC made a lot of people nervous.

Some associates checked the conference room schedule. New York associates found out that there are conference rooms booked for an all partner video conference Monday morning.

At ATL’s request, associates at Orrick’s non-NYC offices checked their conference room schedules as well. We now have reports that conference rooms are booked for Monday in NYC, D.C., and San Francisco for “Ralph Baxter and all.”

But our sources found out something even more disturbing than an all partner video conference on Monday.

Details after the jump.


An all partner meeting in the midst of industry wide layoffs is troubling enough. But our sources also learned that conference rooms have been booked for Wednesday, March 4th for a firm wide video conference. That meeting is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. eastern time.

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The subject of that video conference remains a secret. Nobody we spoke with could think of a positive reason for a firm wide meeting to be scheduled so late in the day. And nobody we spoke with believed that the meeting was scheduled for some benign or mundane reason.

From there, the tips started rolling in. At this point we’re hearing that at least 160 attorneys will be laid off sometime between the meeting on Monday and the meeting on Wednesday. And many people believe that number is low. Some reports suggest that there could be as many as 340 staff layoffs, in addition to the attorney cuts. We expect the layoffs to affect all offices and we understand that first years are not at all safe.

Whatever the number, we understand that “the list” of the people to be let go has already been made.

The consensus opinion from our sources is that layoffs will start on Tuesday, with the Wednesday meeting slotted in as a pep talk for the survivors. We understand that Latham had a similar pep talk on Friday night for attorneys that survived Friday’s layoffs. A tipster points out that Orrick’s one-two meeting punch has happened before:

Looking back at the November layoffs, the partner video conference occurred two hours before the news hit the rest of the office and the layoffs took place. Likewise, in November, the all-attorney video-conference occurred the day after the layoffs. Here the all-attorney video conference will be two days after, perhaps because of the larger scale of these layoffs.

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One wrinkle that is still up in the air is the severance package. Many of our sources heard that Orrick’s initial plan was to offer a two month severance package. Two months would have been viewed as a little cheap given that many firms have offered at least three months. But in light of Latham offering a six month package, it could be very hard for Orrick to recruit against Latham if they are viewed as miserly compared to Latham’s generosity.

It wouldn’t be unusual for Orrick to be second out of the gate with big time layoffs. The firm laid off 75 people just two days after White & Case announced its significant layoffs back in November. More recently, Orrick took the time to freeze salaries between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, two weeks after Latham announced its salary freeze.

The attorneys let go from Orrick in November received a five month severance package.

Good luck to all of the Orrick people out there. We’ll keep you posted with the latest news.

Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: Latham Cuts 440 (190 Associates, 250 Staff)

Nationwide Layoff Watch: Orrick Lays Off Attorneys

Nationwide Pay Freeze Watch: Orrick follows Latham

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