HUGE LAYOFF REPORT: Biglaw Firm Lays Off Associates, Staff, And Partners
Reportedly around 40 attorneys are being laid off.
Law firms may be giving off a sense of “cautious optimism,” even as demand remains sluggish overall. But the more we dig into the gulf developing between the elite firms and the rest of the pack, this overarching mood tends more toward “caution” than “optimism.” It’s just not fair to keep dragging up the rest of the Am Law 200 with the positive results we’re seeing from the top-tier firms — there are some very troubling signs out there for the rest of the pack.
Sadly, one firm just outside of the Am Law 50 has reportedly taken action, with a mass layoff of associates, staff, and even a few partners:
Seyfarth to lay off 40 attorneys and several staff today. Includes income partners and senior staff. Bad Q1. Big debt.
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These numbers have not been confirmed, but a secondsource echos that the layoffs are “huge” and involve all levels of the firm. Well, all levels except equity partners, of course.
An email to the firm’s public relations team was not returned by press time — we will update if and when we hear more.
[UPDATE (7:16 p.m.): We have now received a statement from managing partner Pete Miller:
Amid a shifting market for legal services, we have an obligation to continue managing our business as effectively as possible, while being responsive to the needs of our clients and the market at large. We’ve recently completed a careful review of our business to maximize performance and best serve our clients, while continuing to execute our growth plans.
To meet these objectives, we have made the difficult yet necessary decision that some individuals, both lawyers and staff, will be leaving the firm. We are grateful for the contributions of those impacted, appreciate their service and are working to ensure their transitions are as smooth as possible.
Looking ahead, the firm remains strong, focused, and growth-oriented as we approach the midpoint of the year.
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So there you go.]
In retrospect, we probably should have seen this coming. Seyfarth Shaw was one of the few firms that tried to push back on last year’s round of associate raises. And let’s be clear, the firm didn’t just hold out on raises, it “pushed back,” with its chair emeritus Stephen Poor authoring an article questioning the wisdom of the whole idea of raising salaries. Seyfarth tried to build a critical mass of colleagues willing to stem the tide and, I guess, create a “trimodal” salary distribution curve. Alas, Seyfarth failed.
Perhaps there was more lurking in the firm’s books than a heartfelt desire to maximize partner profits. We warned last year that layoffs could follow the wave of salary increases as firms that really had no business raising salaries started to deal with the effects. Looks like Seyfarth — which did raise salaries, although not to the Cravath scale — is the first big domino to fall.
Hopefully it’s also the last.
If you have more information about the layoffs, please let us know by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog), and we’ll update this story.
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Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
