Biglaw Associates Are Growing Increasingly Worried About Layoffs

It's the big 'what if' for associates that everyone is dwelling on right now.

onMay 15, 2023 at 3:15 PMMay 15, 2023 at 2:15 PM

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.

You always wake up feeling ‘I could be could be next.’ It’s not at the kind of panic level right now, but a slow broil, where you feel, especially if you’re having a less busy work day, ‘what if we’re next,’ and ‘what if this quietness means that I’m useless and not contributing enough to the firm and I’m actually just dead weight that the firm needs to get rid of.’ That kind of thinking works its way into your bones.”

— An associate working at a U.S. Biglaw firm in London, in anonymous comments given to Law.com International, concerning the hushed fear of layoffs that’s spread among associates in the wake of associate layoffs being made in both the US and the UK.

Sponsored

Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance

In this CLE-eligible webinar, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm.

From Pilot and Above The Law

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked 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.