Nationwide Layoff Watch: Staff Stricken at Stroock

What's behind the firm's decision?

Last month, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan named a new partner and special counsel. Congratulations to these five worthy lawyers on their promotions.

Alas, not all the news coming out of Stroock is this happy. We’ve just learned that the firm is planning to cut the ranks of its legal secretaries….

Sources report that up to half of Stroock’s secretaries could see their positions eventually eliminated. Right now, secretaries have been offered a buyout package (which one tipster describes as “meager”). If not enough secretaries accept the buyout, then layoffs affecting up to half of all secretaries will commence.

We reached out to the firm, which issued this statement through a spokesperson:

Like many law firms, we continually review how to better service our attorneys and clients. In this instance, the firm is enhancing its secretarial services by adopting a team or pool-based approach, which is able to more efficiently allocate secretarial resources and make better use of technology. To help us appropriately staff this service area, as a first step we are offering a voluntary severance package to our entire secretarial staff that includes both compensation and health care benefits.

It’s a challenging time to lose one’s job as a legal secretary. As we’ve discussed in these pages, law firms are slashing rather than expanding the ranks of their secretarial staff, at least in terms of secretaries who are full-time employees based out of the firm’s headquarters city. Some firms are turning to outside staffing companies for their support staff needs, while other firms are sending support staff positions to places like Wheeling, West Virginia, or Lexington, Kentucky. (We’re aware of one possible opening for a legal secretary in New York City, but it’s not for everyone.)

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Good luck to the Stroock secretaries as they explore their options. If you’re aware of attorney or staff layoffs that we have not yet covered, please email us or text us (646-820-8477).

Stroock Names New Partner and Special Counsel [Stroock & Stroock & Lavan (press release)]

Earlier: Law Firm Partner Allegedly Threatened to Whip Secretary for Being a ‘Bad Girl’

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