Biglaw Firm's Move To New Office Means It's Time For Some Buyouts

Which firm is packing up its things and hoping to send employees packing too?

onSeptember 29, 2017 at 11:26 AM

As we noted back in 2016, several Biglaw firms have opted to pack up and leave their office homes and plant new roots across town in Hudson Yards. Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy is but one of them. Milbank has spent about 150 years in its current downtown location, but with its decision to invest in new real estate comes the firm’s decision to completely change the way it operates as far as legal support staff is concerned. Buyouts abound with this firm’s move.

Here’s a statement we received from the firm regarding the plan for its secretaries:

In anticipation of the firm’s move to Hudson Yards in 2018, Milbank is transitioning to a team-based legal support staff model, which is in widespread use throughout the industry. To facilitate this change, the firm has offered its legal secretaries in New York a generous voluntary package that includes an incentive payment, severance commensurate with years of service, and paid health benefits. Milbank expects the majority of its legal secretaries will move with the firm to Hudson Yards.

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For those interested in leaving the firm on a voluntary basis, these “generous” packages and added “incentive” payments don’t sound half bad. We wish all of the affected legal professionals at Milbank who decide to take this deal the best of luck should they choose to seek new job opportunities in the legal industry and beyond.

If your firm or organization is closing its doors or 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; this is a subject we cover quite closely. Please email us or text us (646-820-8477) with any information you might have. Thank you!

Staci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.