Law Shucks, Layoffs

This Week in Layoffs: 05.15.09

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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.]

As usual, we start with the big-picture number, and once again, it’s not good. Initial jobless claims were up to 637,000 last week, from an adjusted 605,000 the week prior. The streak of continuing-claim records continues, now in its 15th week, as net jobs continue to contract. Unemployment is at a 25-year high of 8.9%. There may be some room for optimism, as many pundits believe the surge is a result of the auto industry’s continuing woes. Other sectors may be seeing some of those green shoots.

At least we’re not BigPharma (although they do provide tons of work). According to IguanaBio,

[Pfizer]’s four-year “tour de layoffs” has cost the company $7B, according to an SEC filing. To date, PFE has spent $5.3B for employee-termination costs, including severance payments, pensions and post-retirement benefits, as well as costs associated with write-downs on properties, plants and equipment. PFE has axed 40,000 (yeah, 40,000) employees over the last five years, with 1,650 positions gone in Q1. The damage is not done either. PFE says that once the WYE merger is done, another 19,000 will get the axe with 8,000 coming from PFE and the rest from WYE. PFE expects the merger and restructuring will cost between $6-8B, but will reduce annual costs by $4B starting in 2012.

After the jump, back to updating BigLaw layoffs (despite some parties’ selfish objections) and other cost-cutting measures.

Layoffs

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This week’s total was pretty flat compared to last week, but significantly above the modest numbers we became accustomed to in April.

Stealth layoffs continue to be a problem, but at least IP firm Fish & Richardson finally saw the light. After trying to pawn off some of its previous layoffs as performance based, this time around the firm at least had the decency to acknowledge the 35 lawyers and 85 staff it just laid off were victims of the economy. We applaud the candor, if not the behavior. Sullivan & Cromwell, on the other hand, is still trying to go the stealth route. Initial reports of 15-20 have climbed to 30 and may go as high as 10%, which would be 45-50 associates.

Willkie seems to be in full-blown stealth mode, according to numerous tips to ATL. Supposedly, the affected have been given five months to transition elsewhere (where, exactly, is that supposed to be?) and the layoffs may actually just be presaging an impending wave of layoffs as deep as 10%.

We don’t track dissolutions as layoffs, but the final number for Wolf Block is 428, 235 of which were in Philly, 121 in Jersey and 57 in New York.

Australia

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Ahh, the life of a slacker. We’ve previously been blessed by local reporters covering the markets in Canada and Russia, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. This time it’s the most-remote of common-law markets: Australia. This week, AmLaw Daily pointed us to an Australasian Legal Business piece, including a poor local shadow of our layoff tracker.

Among the larger Aussie firms enacting cuts:

— Minter Ellison said that “softening” demand for legal services was behind its decision to let go of 35 staff members–11 lawyers and 24 support staff.

— Blake Dawson terminated 89 employees–23 lawyers and 66 support staff–after its March review of business.

— DLA Phillips Fox, an affiliate of DLA Piper, cut 12 lawyers from its offices in Australia and New Zealand.

— One of Australia’s largest firms, Allens Arthur Robinson, announced a firm-wide salary freeze in light of a “shrinking Australian legal market.”

— Corrs Chambers Westgarth has delayed the start date for its 2009 recruits from February to April and paid graduates roughly $1,740 each in compensation. (All dollar totals have been converted to U.S. dollars.)

In addition to the layoffs, ALB reports the Aussies are taking many of the same activities we’re seeing in the US and have been summarizing in this series.

London

London has signed up for a permanent place in this series, giving us something to write about almost every week. What we’re seeing now is the final numbers for the mid-February layoffs. DLA Piper came in under its original estimate, laying off 24 attorneys and 100 staff, below the original projection of 140. Bear in mind, that’s just London – New York was 80 associates.

The article continues on Law Shucks, with the all-important final numbers for the week and the other cost-cutting measures (layoffs and deferrals, including one new spin).

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