Layoffs

Nationwide Layoff Watch: O’Melveny Fires 90 Lawyers, 110 Staff

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omelveny logo.JPGFirst Latham, then Orrick, now O’Melveny.

Yesterday, we mentioned that layoffs could be coming to O’Melveny & Myers. Today, the rains came.

A firm-wide email just went out announcing that 200 people would be let go. The cuts amount to about ten percent of attorneys and ten percent of staff:

It is against this backdrop that I am writing to inform you about some very difficult and unprecedented decisions we have made affecting lawyers and staff. We will be reducing approximately 90 legal and 110 staff positions from our Firm. The majority of the positions are in the US, with some in Asia and a smaller number in London. Altogether the reduction will impact roughly 10% of our lawyer workforce and roughly 10% of our staff workforce.

Is ten percent the magic number that firms are now trying to get rid of?

As we understand it, O’Melveny will be giving a three-month severance package. Latham wins the severance wars again. On the other hand, Latham laid off 440 people, which is just a little less than O’Melveny and Orrick combined.

While many of the O’Melveny people do not yet know if they will be part of the layoffs, the firm did send a message to all of its incoming summer associates. The future summers were informed of the bad news at the firm and told that summer program would be scaled back to a ten-week experience.

For those keeping score at home today, we’re looking at 60 people from Shearman & Sterling, 130 people from Dewey, and now 200 people from O’Melveny that are being let go today. Black Wednesday? Humped Day?

UPDATE (12:57): O’Melveny has released some additional news about its severance package to Above the Law. For some people, the package could be better than what is being offered by Latham. A firm spokesperson tells us:

Departing associates and counsel will receive a payment that is equal to 3 months as a minimum and 7 months as a maximum, based upon completed years of service, with two weeks for each full year of service, with no cap on the dollar amount. More importantly, our Firm provided meaningful bonuses in December of 2008, and significant salary increases in January of this year, which was not the case at all firms. We want to be fair and generous with those who remain, as well as those who depart.

These are both good points. As we’ve pointed out in the past, O’Melveny matched the Skadden bonus (except for NYC) for people who billed 1950 hours. And while Latham froze salaries, O’Melveny did not.

We’ll keep you posted. Read the full memo, after the jump.

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Nationwide Layoff Watch: Dewey & LeBoeuf Starts Making Cuts

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Dewey LeBoeuf LLP logo D&L DL Above the Law blog.jpgDewey & LeBoeuf has been slowly shedding people over the past few months. The firm closed down its offices and relocated attorneys from Charlotte and San Francisco. There was some forced attrition in November. The firm announced structured finance layoffs in December. And the firm laid off a significant portion of its Los Angeles associates in January.

Today, cuts have come to NYC and D.C.

The firm is not calling these cuts “layoffs.” Instead, the firm is finishing up semi-annual performance reviews and making cuts along those lines. The firm provided ATL with this statement:

Dewey & LeBoeuf maintains a semi-annual performance review process and we are currently in our year-end cycle. We do not comment on the specific outcomes of our performance review process or individual review conversations.

Some explanation about the Dewey & LeBoeuf review system, plus thoughts from tipsters, after the jump.

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to New York
Pillsbury Admits Gaffe — and Looming Lawyer Layoffs

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Acela Business Class Amtrak.jpgTime for a brief follow-up to our earlier post about Biglaw partner Robert Robbins, head of the corporate practice of Pillsbury Winthrop, and how he spoke — a little too loudly, on a crowded Acela train — about the firm’s planned layoffs. You may have already seen it in the comments, but in case it got lost in the shuffle, the firm has confirmed the gaffe (and the layoffs).

After getting its act together — the Pillsbury website was down for a while today, which some commenters attributed to web traffic resulting from the mini-scandal — the firm issued a statement to The Recorder (via Legal Pad):

It is an unfortunate fact in today’s economy that no business or law firm can rule out adjustments to their overall workforce levels. This includes Pillsbury, and, among other cost cutting measures, we will be implementing reductions to ensure that our resources are aligned with our business needs. We apologize for the unfortunate manner in which our deliberations about reductions have become public.

Robert Robbins Bob Robbins Pillsbury Winthrop.jpgWe reiterate our earlier advice: Pillsbury associates, start your engines laser printers, and crank out those résumés. It’s time to move on. Bob Robbins is coming for you.

We’ve collected selected links to coverage by other outlets — heck, it even made Gawker — of the “unfortunate” incident. Enjoy.

Update: And Instapundit, too.

Pillsbury Confirms Loudmouth’s Layoff Gaffe [Legal Pad / The Recorder]
Pillsbury Accidentally Announces Layoffs on Train [Am Law Daily]
Pillsbury Layoffs Leaked By Partner on Train [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]
Doughy Pillsbury Lawyer Demonstrates Why You Should Shut Up on Your Cell Phone [Gawker]
Message to Law Partners [Instapundit]

Earlier: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to New York (Or: Pillsbury associates, brace yourselves.)

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to New York
(Or: Pillsbury associates, brace yourselves.)

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Acela Business Class Amtrak.jpgLaw firm partners need to watch more Gossip Girl. If they did, they’d learn the perils of talking about private matters in public places. In the age of BlackBerrys, texting, and cameraphones, it’s ridiculously easy for tipsters to leak details of overheard conversations and not-so-secret rendezvous to their favorite online gossip girl (or boy — XOXO, Lat).

Last year, we wrote about a Thelen partner who was overheard discussing her firm’s layoffs on the subway. Last night, we received this information, from a law student traveling from D.C. to New York:

This afternoon I boarded a train from Washington bound for Penn Station…. I, along with all of the other passengers, were sitting quietly when the man directly behind me decided to make a phone call using his bluetooth. He was talking so loudly that I think most people in the car were able to hear him.

His conversation, though he stressed how necessary it was to be kept secret (ah, the irony), detailed the current plans of Pillsbury to lay off somewhere in the range of 15-20 attorneys from four offices by the end of March, including a few senior associates with low billable hours and two or three first-year associates. I wouldn’t have believed it except for the fact that he identified himself to the call as Bob Robbins, who I learned is the leader of the firm’s Corporate & Securities practice section, and was talking to Rick Donaldson, who I learned was COO. What’s more, he was NAMING NAMES over the phone!

After we expressed skepticism over this wild story, including the tipster’s ability to catch the names of both Robbins and Donaldson, we received this response:

Robert Robbins Bob Robbins Pillsbury Winthrop.jpgI agree it’s pretty wild. I wasn’t trying to overhear, but I had no choice because of the proximity. The name “Robbins” I remembered because he said it so damn loud. I went to their website, and the picture [at right] was an exact match. He was big enough to fit almost two chairs.

“Donaldson” I didn’t remember as clearly. I remembered that it began with a “Do” and thought it was “Dotson,” but there was no “Dotson” on the site — just “Donaldson.” Also, he called him “Rick” a few times.

Says our source, in explaining the decision to tip off ATL:

Before today, I have never even considered posting on this website, but I was so mortified by my experience…. I’ve heard of attorneys being reprimanded for discussing client matters in an elevator. Where does airing your own firm’s dirty laundry on an express train fit on the list? I don’t know if there is a way that you can independently verify this, but if so, please do.

Partial verification, after the jump.

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(Or: Pillsbury associates, brace yourselves.)”

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Notes from the Breadline: And You May Ask Yourself – Well… How Did I Get Here?

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Notes from the Breadline Roxana St Thomas.jpgEd. note: Welcome to the second installment of “Notes from the Breadline,” a new column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. To those of you who have been wondering, it is not fiction; we’ve just altered a handful of details to preserve the author’s anonymity (since she’s still looking for work).

If you missed the inaugural post, check it out here. You can reach Roxana St. Thomas by email, at roxanastthomas@gmail.com, or find her on Facebook.

It is December. The office feels empty, abandoned. I have finished every shred of billable work I could dredge up, and, as of a few days ago, exhausted the non-billable possibilities as well. My few pro bono matters have been reviewed and researched thoroughly, and I have no CLE requirements left to fulfill. I wonder idly if I can spend 70 or 80 hours on CLE, and then roll it over for the next few years, like cell phone minutes. Or maybe I can spend some time “organizing client files,” which, incidentally, my cabinets are choked with.

One of our biggest clients, a huge lending institution, collapsed suddenly a few months ago, and the raft of cases that had been keeping me afloat burbled and sank virtually overnight. Most of them, which involve holding companies or subsidiaries that have not yet declared bankruptcy, are not officially dead: they are simply moribund, the paper equivalent of carrion. My office is an abattoir! I think. Though unfortunate, I wonder, does this present billable possibilities? How about “Administered last rites to dying cases; prepared dead matters for cremation and burial; performed obsequies for same”?

I try to tell myself that we are experiencing an early, holiday-related slump, but the truth is that things have been this way — painfully slow — for several months. We are all on edge, and growing progressively more nervous as work gets harder to come by. Associates spend the time not devoted to billable work complaining, worrying, regarding each other jealously, or trying to read tea leaves: why did he (or she) get that assignment? Does everyone know I’m looking for work? Why hasn’t that case, mentioned in passing by a partner, materialized? Where did it go?

Making matters worse, the firm insists that business is booming, although we all know by now that several associates were axed during the last round of reviews (for unspecified “performance-related” reasons) and that, more recently, there has been a spate of staff layoffs, also unacknowledged. At our last litigation meeting, the department head announced cheerfully that things were “great,” and that our group was “going like gangbusters!” In the stunned silence that followed, the associates looked at each other incredulously. Although, with few exceptions, no one was busy, a palpable sense of doubt settled over the room. Maybe, everyone seemed to wonder, it’s just me.

Read more, after the jump.

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Notes from the Breadline: You May Find Yourself Living in a Shotgun Shack

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Notes from the Breadline Roxana St Thomas.jpgEd. note: Welcome to “Notes from the Breadline,” a new column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. Some details have been changed to protect the author’s identity (and job prospects) — she’s still searching for work, as will be covered in future columns — but her story is true in its essentials.

This week the column will appear today and Thursday, and then each Tuesday in subsequent weeks. You can reach Roxana — perhaps to offer her a job? — at roxanastthomas at gmail dot com.

How quickly things change. This morning I had to stop for a moment to ask myself what month it is. January? No. February? I think so. In fact, I’m pretty sure that it is February-something, although it’s hard to say when tumbleweeds blow through the Outlook calendar that remains on your BlackBerry, prepared to accept the appointments you do not have and the meetings you will not schedule. Is it Thursday? Friday? Tuesday? That’s even tougher. Those are all days on which one might have a conference call, or a motion due, or a litigation department dinner to sit through while rolling your eyes and emailing a friend across the room (like sixth graders disguised in business attire and outfitted with less crinkly note-writing tools).

But none of those things happened yesterday, or will happen today, and I am wearing the same thing I slept in and, for that matter, wore to the gym. And I haven’t washed my hair since whatever day was three days ago, which I couldn’t tell you the name of.

I should explain, as a preliminary matter, that I did not engage in this mental exchange after suffering a concussion, or upon waking from a bender. I’m just having a hard time believing that, a few short months ago, I was saving to buy a house. That I set up a bank account from which to make extra payments toward my student loans. That my 401(k) actually increased in value from one month to the next. Or, better yet, that I reveled (albeit somewhat sheepishly) in the ability to treat myself to sushi a couple of times a week, or to pay what women pay for a haircut in New York, or to buy gas at the height of the summer price explosion. I am not talking about a life of profligacy, Manolos, or the newest new iPhone, my friends: I’m talking about what it was like to have a job, which I am suddenly without.

It seems that it should have taken longer to go from that state of being to this one — that I should have seen it coming, or had a chance to prepare for life in the breadline. If depicted in a movie, it should have happened over the course of a montage, in which scenes involving a giant beach ball would give way to a long view of people diving into the leaf pile, wearing mufflers, and then pulling the Christmas tree home in lightly falling snow. Calendar pages would be shown, tearing off and floating away. It would not have happened in the sudden, execution-style fashion now favored by firms. If depicted in a cartoon, this disturbingly popular approach would involve an Acme catapult.

But, I have to admit, as much as I still wake up feeling stunned by this sudden reversal of fortune, I wasn’t deeply shocked when my turn came. We — meaning I and every lawyer (and, for that matter, non-lawyer) I know, at my firm and others — had been predicting catastrophe for some time. If you’ve been through it, you know that there is, in fact, a difference. The knowledge that your head might be on the chopping block protects you from pure, unadulterated shock, but it doesn’t spare you from the stunned realization that you’ve finally been fed into the wood chipper.

Check back in on Thursday, when we’ll revisit the Palin-esque scene of my own “termination,” as they say in the trade.

Update: Future posts in this series will be collected here.

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Can’t find work? Start your own firm.

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sarah buckley and alexandra hutchings b & h.jpgThe number of attorneys looking for jobs continues to grow each month. And we can’t help running into them in New York, ground zero for attorney layoffs. We asked one Thacher refugee whether he had thought about banding together with other jobless legal eagles to start their own venture. “Too junior, not interested,” he replied.

Well, that’s not stopping two recent law grads from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The Kansas City Star reports that Sarah Buckley and Alexandra Hutchings were unable to find work after passing the Missouri bar exam last year, so they’ve started their own firm: Buckley & Hutchings, LLC:

The question remains, though, whether they are an exception or — as more law school grads find a serious shortage of law firm jobs — the start of a trend.

Are these bright-eyed, bushy-tailed UMKC grads blazing a novel trail? More after the jump.

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Nationwide Layoff Watch: Fish & Richardson Cuts 30 Staff: Unknown Number of Associates

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Fish Richardson logo.jpgFish & Richardson is conducting layoffs, another indication that IP work is not a safe haven during the economic storm.

The firm would not respond to our requests for comment, but a firm wide email sent to Fish associates confirmed that 30 support staffers were let go this week:

Today, Fish & Richardson is reducing the size of our staff by notifying 30 support staff that they will no longer be employed by the firm. Affected employees are in eight of our U.S. offices and in several administrative departments.

We thank all of these employees for their service to the firm. We know that this will be a difficult time for them, and we will assist them through this transition with a severance program. Our people are our greatest asset, and so we take these steps only after thoughtful consideration.

The firm wide memo did not mention anything about associate layoffs. That may be because the firm is also conducting stealth layoffs of associates.

More details from tipsters after the jump.

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Nationwide Layoff Watch: Major Downsizing at Wilson Sonsini (45 Lawyers, 68 Staffers)

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wsgr logo.JPGMajor news coming out of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The firm just announced that 45 attorneys and 68 staff were laid off:

[I]t is with regret that we announce that the firm will be downsizing our associate, legal support, and administrative ranks, with 45 attorneys and 68 staff directly affected. Members and staff managers will meet with their teams today and tomorrow to inform them of the details of this decision. Please know that the firm is extremely grateful to all of the affected employees for their contributions, and we will work with them and provide resources to ease their transitions.

In light of that news, the salary freeze and bonus news for those who are left doesn’t really sting that much:

[W]e will not be making associate step salary increases this year, but we will be paying out bonuses based on the criteria and structure developed by the Associate Bonus Program Steering Committee and announced last fall (additional details to follow shortly). Legal support and administrative staff will not receive merit bonuses in January, but the firm will be making profit-sharing contributions in the spring to all eligible plan participants equal to 9.5 percent of their eligible compensation, as we have in previous years.

Best of luck to the 113 people suddenly out of work. Keep your heads up.

Check out the full firm statement, after the jump.

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Nationwide Layoff Watch: Kirkland & Ellis Fires Non-Equity Partners

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kirkland ellis logo.JPGKirkland & Ellis has asked a number of non-equity partners to leave, multiple sources report. The timing is unclear, but they may have up to six months to pack their things.

The number of laid-off non-equity partners — or “non-share partners,” in K&E parlance — is believed to hover somewhere between 15 and 25. Some are in litigation and some in corporate, but we understand that all of those let go are in Kirkland’s Chicago office.

A tipster points out:

All were told it’s because [of] performance, but most were considered fine lawyers and rated with or above their class each year.

Kirkland & Ellis spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment by the time of this posting.

It’s important to remember that Kirkland & Ellis has a fairly large class of non-equity or income partners. Kirkland uses the “non-share partner” classification liberally, and they tend to make more lawyers “partners,” at earlier stages in their careers. Some K&E “partners” would be senior associates at other firms.

Kirkland also paid out Cravath-level bonuses. When Kirkland announced their bonuses, many commenters opined that bonuses were better than layoffs and that K&E would not do layoffs.

But it looks like Kirkland has had to do some more belt-tightening as the economy continues to tumble. While laying off partners is unusual, it’s not unheard of; last fall, Jenner & Block axed 10 partners (both equity and non-equity).

Earlier: Associate Bonus Watch: Kirkland & Ellis Pays Cravath Scale

Prior ATL coverage of layoffs

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