Is This The Beginning Of The End For This Biglaw Firm?

The firm provided notice of mass layoffs.

onJuly 24, 2019 at 1:13 PMJuly 26, 2019 at 9:38 AM

Here’s what we already knew about the state of affairs at the Biglaw firm of LeClairRyan — partners are leaving in droves. We’ve reported on this extensively in the past, what with the firm losing almost 10 percent of its headcount in 2018 due to lateral moves, and partners are continuing to depart for greener pastures in 2019. Indeed, its been reported that at the end of 2015 the firm had 156 equity partners, but by June of 2019, that number was down to 45.

The firm responded to these departures by reorganizing around “law firm 2.0” and embarked on a partnership with alternative legal service provider, UnitedLex. But there’s been some indictions that law firm 2.0 wasn’t an immediate cure for what ailed the firm — last month we reported that the firm was barred by its lender from returning the capital contributions of former partners. And the rumors about the future of the firm have continued to swirl.

Now Above the Law is hearing from multiple sources that the firm issued Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act mass layoff notices earlier this week to staff. That federal law requires employers with 100+ to provide a 60 calendar-day notification of mass layoffs of employees. So, yikes.

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What happens next is still speculation. Will the firm formally dissolve? Attempt to spin of into a new entity? What we have heard from folks on the ground is that LeClairRyan attorneys and other professionals are eager for a way out. Just today, Fox Rothschild confirmed they were taking on a 15-attorney group from LeClairRyan — the aviation group led by Mark Dombroff. With the writing seemingly on the wall, you have to imagine more departures are imminent.

Above the Law reached out to LeClairRyan for comment but have received no response. We will update the story should they provide a comment.

headshot Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).