Biglaw, Layoffs, Staff Layoffs

Nationwide Layoff Watch: 150 To 200 Jobs Is A Lot Of Jobs

It has been a while since we've seen job cuts this large in Biglaw.

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Don't let the gates hit you on the way out.

Don’t let the K&L Gates hit you on the way out.

It’s not just Carrier. President Donald Trump needs to place a call to K&L Gates — although now it might be too late.

It seems that K&L Gates recently shed hundreds of good, solid American jobs (many of them in politically important “swing states” like Pennsylvania and North Carolina). These jobs might not be going to Mexico, but their elimination does reflect the broader economic changes that are sadly hollowing out our nation’s middle class and increasing income inequality.

Last week, we reported on significant staff layoffs at K&L Gates, but we lacked details on the number of affected individuals (other than a claim of at least 30 staffers laid off in Pittsburgh). We’re now getting some firm-wide estimates — and it seems the cuts were huge. Here’s what one tipster told us:

The firm let go nearly 200 staff across the firm, including director levels in Human Resources and Marketing. IT was the hardest hit, but other departments, including Human Resources, Business Development, the paralegal group, and marketing, also saw large numbers let go.

I’m not sure of each state’s employment laws, but to my knowledge all U.S. layoffs included one week of severance pay, plus benefits through the end of February. Since being let go I’ve been told through former colleagues the firm was cutting down in areas the new leadership felt were “cost centers.” It’s been quite some time since the firm saw any staff as more than cost centers. It’s a “do more with less” mentality, and now those still employed are picking up even more work from those of us let go.

Said a second source (corroborating the claim of triple-digit cuts):

I have heard there were more than 150 let go firm wide, but cannot confirm that number.

All three offices in North Carolina were affected. To my knowledge, only service center staff, secretaries, paralegals, and other support staffers were let go. No attorneys were affected. Some employees had been with the firm for 15 or 30 years. Others joined the firm in the past few years, leaving very good jobs in order to do so.

My severance package and the package of a colleague consisted of one week of pay for each year worked, which is not consistent with what was reported to you per your article. I’m very interested to know if there were inconsistencies in how that was applied.

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We’ve actually heard of several different approaches to severance, as noted in our prior article (including the UPDATES). It appears that some got one week of pay per year of service, some got two weeks of pay per year of service, and some got twelve weeks of pay. So it seems that severance did vary across the firm — possibly based on seniority, possibly based on department or role, and possibly state by state.

Here are additional complaints about how the cuts were handled:

I have had a difficult time receiving outplacement services from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. I reached out to them immediately after I was laid off and was told the first available appointment was not until two weeks later — halfway through the month of outplacement services we have been provided. At this rate, the time will run out before I receive much of anything. Also of note, they chose February, the shortest month of the year to do this.

Finally, I feel the layoffs were done in a very cold way and affected only affected primarily lower-level staff — the low-paid staff. [UPDATE (2/15/2017, 10:50 a.m.): As noted by the first source quoted above and as another source recently reminded us, the staff reductions at K&L did include some upper-level management. Directors in admin, HR, and marketing departments were affected.]

We were immediately locked out of our computers and had to leave as soon as we packed up our personal items. I went through a layoff during the Great Recession and that employer gave us a month of advance notice to give us a chance to start looking for employment. I know of attorneys that have been let go over my time at KLG for poor performance who were given lead time to find other positions, but that courtesy wasn’t extended to us lower-level staff. Cold and wrong!

We reached out to K&L Gates with these comments, including the claim of 150 to 200 affected employees. The firm did not get back to us.

Layoffs of law firm employees as opposed to factory workers are probably not on President Trump’s radar screen — but Biglaw cuts can be similarly sudden and painful, reflecting the same erosion of trust between employers and employees that we’ve seen over the years. As one laid-off K&L Gates staffer commented, “It was quite a shock to us all, especially given how long most of us have been loyal to the firm.”

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K&L Gates is sadly not alone. We’ve received a number of reports of Biglaw layoffs — but we need additional confirmation before reporting them.

If your firm or organization is reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477). Thank you for your help in bringing a measure of transparency to an often opaque industry.

Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: Banished Beyond The Gates
Top Firms Get Richer In Otherwise Poor Year For The Legal Industry

DBL square headshotDavid Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].

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