For a Midwestern firm, Husch Blackwell drew a lot of comments (and a huge amount of email) yesterday. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that firm chairman Dave Fenley
declined to use the term “layoffs” in connection with the firm’s actions, saying the term wrongly implied the attorneys were let go because business at the firm had slackened.
Well, there was a firm-wide meeting yesterday at the large Midwestern firm (yesterday, I incorrectly categorized the firm as “mid-sized” — my bad), and Fenley apologized … almost. A tipster reports:
Fenley admitted being a “bonehead” in his communications yesterday.
But Fenley couldn’t keep his foot out of his mouth for a whole meeting. More wisdom from Husch after the jump.
The mid-sized large Midwestern firm of Husch Blackwell laid off a number of attorneys and staff today, proving once again that nobody is safe from the economic downturn. Husch laid off 17 attorneys, including partners, and 45 staff today.
For some strange reason, Husch Blackwell doesn’t want to actually admit that these layoffs were due to the recession. According to the Kansas City Star:
Citing performance reasons, Husch Blackwell Sanders has terminated 17 lawyers and 45 staff members throughout its 13 offices….
[Firm chairman Dave] Fenley declined to use the term “layoffs” in connection with the firm’s actions, saying the term wrongly implied the attorneys were let go because business at the firm had slackened.
He said that Husch Blackwell was “going gangbusters” in certain areas and was meeting its numbers this year, “which is pleasantly surprising.”
Mr. Chairman, on the coasts we’ve explored the studio space with layoffs undertaken despite gang-busting-business. It turns out, people get really annoyed when you say things like that. Most people are able to identify the substance “raining” down on them. HTH.
This isn’t even the first round of layoffs at Husch Blackwell. Back in February, a tipster reported:
Although they weren’t called “layoffs,” Kansas City and St. Louis based Husch Blackwell Sanders has laid off at least 24 lawyers…. When confronted with news by Missouri Lawyers Weekly that at least 24 lawyers had been laid off, co-chairman David Fenley reported in the article that (1) he didn’t know how many were let go; and (2) the lawyers let go were the result of the normal review process.
Aren’t midwesterners supposed to be more “forthright” than “the fat-cats on Wall Street?” I mean, this firm is based in Missouri, home to Harry Buck Stopping Truman himself.
In any event, good luck to the many associates, partners, and staffers LAID OFF reviewed away from Husch Blackwell.
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Ed. note: The Asia Chronicles column is authored by Kinney Recruiting. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates, counsels and partners in Asia than any other recruiting firm in each of the past six years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.com.
Deal flow has clearly picked recently up for most US associates, counsels and partners in Hong Kong/China and Singapore. We are on the phone with a lot of these folks on a daily basis, many of whom we have known for years. Further, the head of our Asia team, Evan Jowers, and Kinney’s founder and president, Robert Kinney, frequently meet in person with leading US partners in Asia to assess their needs and keep on top of the inside scoop at as many firms as possible. The need for legal recruiting help in Asia from experienced recruiters appears to be live and well. In March, Evan and Robert were in Beijing at such meetings, in April, Evan was in Hong Kong, and for half of June Evan will be in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Thus its pretty easy for us to tell when there has been an across-the-market pick up in capital markets and corporate work.
On an average day in Asia when Evan and Robert visit firms, they typically have 5 to 9 meetings a day, mostly with US partners in the market. The reason they have these meetings is not simply because Kinney makes a lot of US attorney placements in Asia and that a particular firm may have openings; instead these are just visits with friends. After years of working together as business partners, the folks at Kinney are actually these peoples’ friends. The firms Kinney work closely with in Asia (which is just about every law firm – call us if you want to know the one firm in the world we will never place anyone with again, ever, and why) look forward to the visits, or at least act like they do. After seven years in the market, many of the client partners are former associate candidates. Also, these US partners see Kinney as a very good source of market information as well, because they know how deep their contacts are in the market and how frequently they are speaking to counterparts at peer firms.
In a land that is right here and in a time that is right now, a technology has arisen so powerful that it can replace basic human document review. Is it time to bow down before our new robot overlords?
First, here’s a little story about me: my life in the legal world began as a paralegal. My first case was a GIANT patent infringement case that was already six years old and had involved as many as five companies, multiple US courts, the ITC and an international standards committee. I knew nothing about any of this.
On my first day, my supervisor (a paralegal with at least eight other cases driving her crazy) sat me down in front of a Concordance database with a 100,000+ patents and patent file histories. “Code these,” she said. I learned that “coding”, for the purposes of this exercise, meant manually typing the inventor’s name, the title of the patent, the assignee, the file date, and other objective data for each document. I worked on that project – and only that project – for at least the first six months of my job. After a week or so, time began to blur.
What I know, in retrospect and with absolutely certainty, is that as time began to blur, so did my judgment. So did my attention to detail. If you could tell me that I did not make at least one mistake a day – one inconsistent spelling, one reversed day and month, one incorrectly spaced title – I frankly would need to see your evidence. I would not believe it. The human mind is trainable but it is not a machine.
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For a Midwestern firm, Husch Blackwell drew a lot of comments (and a huge amount of email) yesterday. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that firm chairman Dave Fenley
