Law Shucks, Layoffs

This Week in Layoffs: 03.28.09

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[Ed. note: Above the Law has teamed up with Law Shucks. Law Shucks has done excellent work translating all of the layoff news into user-friendly charts and graphs: the Layoff Tracker.]

Things are either quieting down or it’s just the calm before the storm. We suspect the latter. Although there were more people laid off this week than last, it was still relatively quiet, particularly compared to the beginning of the month. Still, first quarter results are being calculated and it’s not going to be pretty.

Life does go on for some. Freshfields kicked off the London firms’ partnership-announcement season with news that 14 associates had made partner – just more than half the 25 of last year, though. Surprisingly, nine of the 14 were in corporate practices. Not surprisingly, none were in the US.

Of course, the layoffs continue. Clifford Chance had its eighth layoff announcement – 25 transactional lawyers in New York this time (although we note that it’s sometimes difficult to track the UK firms’ layoffs because the redundancy process sometimes includes layoffs that have been previously or are later reported as if separate). Anyway, that brings the firm’s total up to 391 (210 lawyers, 181 staff) – good for #4 on the Top Ten list.

The other big news for the week was Dechert sneaking back onto the list when it laid off 125 people – 63 lawyers, 62 staff. That brought the firm’s total to 239 (144 lawyers, 95 staff), good for the #10 spot. This is another firm that just can’t get it right. The firm has had 5 separate layoffs.

News, analysis, and context, after the jump.


Last week, we updated the ever-shrinking list of California firms with clean hands. While there are no good numbers yet, cross Quinn Emanuel and Gibson Dunn off the list. QE laid off a “handful” (reportedly six) people for “lack of work.” Late Friday afternoon, Gibson Dunn announced layoffs of 36 staffHats off to you, Munger Tolles & Olsen, and Irell & Manella.

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Texas was the region in the news this week. It’s impossible to get a straight answer out of those people. We’ve railed against stealth layoffs for a while, but AmLaw Daily did a fine job of calling the firms out. Practice among a certain set of firms down there has been to confirm layoffs when pressed but not provide any details. Baker Botts, Andrews Kurth, Gardere Wynne Sewell, and Winstead are all identified as having confirmed layoffs. Bracewell Giuliani claims it had to let a few people go for “performance reasons”. Haynes and Boone and Vinson & Elkins deny layoffs and hope to be able to avoid them going forward. We’ve had a few tips and seen a number of comments that V&E in particular is being disingenuous. Rumors of deep stealth layoffs at both firms are rampant.

The partner class of 2017 is going to be interesting as the list of firms pushing back start dates continues to grow. Most recently, Weil Gotshal is paying students to defer all the way out until January, 2011. Beware, though, the terms of these programs are in flux, and spots are increasingly hard to find.

Things aren’t looking good for the class of 2010, either. Summer programs are being canceled left and right, and the starting classes in the fall of 2010 will be full with deferred graduates from this year.

Still, lawyers are hopeless romantics. Twenty-five percent of respondents to a Robert Half survey indicate that their organizations will be adding legal personnel in the next year; 65% think staffing will remain flat. Somehow, only 10% think headcount will be lower this time next year. The report’s sponsor claims that the respondents aren’t completely offbase. He seems to be under the impression that layoffs are centered on major firms, but that “a lot of midsized firms and small firms that have busy litigation and bankruptcy practices, maybe foreclosure practices, and IP firms, continue to have demand for clients to move through cases and need to hire specialized candidates within those specialized categories.” I attribute it to lawyers’ being fundamentally incapable of assessing market conditions or reacting responsibly (rather than a panicked rush from one extreme to the other), and their inshakeable belief that they’re all above average. ABA Journal points out that last year, 45% thought there would be net hiring and only 3% of the geniuses surveyed thought there would be layoffs. How did that work out?

270 layoffs this week (141 lawyers, 129 staff)

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3,152 this month (1,175 lawyers, 1977 staff)

7,474 in calendar 2009 (2,990 lawyers, 4,484 staff)

Keep an eye on Law Shucks next week for the always-informative “The Month in Layoffs” March edition. It will probably come out around Thursday, but there’s something informative all week. As always, there is further supporting information on the Layoff Tracker and methodology on the series’ home at Law Shucks.

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