$80,000 for a Year Off?

Mixed feelings today re NY Times article here. Would love to know how the attorneys feels about this.

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Restructuring the IP practice

More law firm reductions kicked off the week, with Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP laying off 99, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP letting go of 25 and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP cutting 10 percent of its work force. Fried Frank confirmed Monday that it had reduced its head count by 41 associates and 58 administrative staff members, citing the negative impact of the financial crisis on clients.

Bryan Cave LLP has added another intellectual property litigator to the firm's list of partners, luring Kara E. F. Cenar from the newly merged K&L Gates LLP.
Cenar, who joins the firm's Chicago offices, has spent her career litigating intellectual property law, advising clients on their IP rights, and developing enforcement programs to avoid infringement.

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Morgan & Finnegan LLP

Intellectual property law firm Morgan & Finnegan LLP which dissolved last month, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, listing liabilities that include nearly $3.8 million in capital owed to former partners at the firm.

A judge on Friday issued an injunction barring defunct intellectual property boutique Morgan & Finnegan LLP from selling or transferring its assets, after a lawsuit by JPMorgan Chase & Co. claimed the firm defaulted on a loan and owed more than $4 million.

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More Layoffs

According to Law360, layoffs in the legal industry continued to mount Tuesday, with rumors swirling of fresh rounds of firings at Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker LLP, Venable LLP, Chadbourne & Parke LLP and Blank Rome LLP. The deepest cuts were made at Paul Hastings, which reduced its work force in the United States by a whopping 131, including 44 associates and 87 staff.

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Want to keep track of the layoffs?

Check out the Vault Layoffs Tracker here.

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The Layoff List

As I searched the internet on the news of more layoffs, specifically at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, I came across a compilation of this information in one place. Keep on top off all the layoffs, here.

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Bloody Thursday: Major Law Firms Ax Attorneys and Staff

In the single ugliest day for the legal industry since the economic downturn began, eight major firms announced a total of 748 layoffs Thursday, including 320 lawyers and 428 staff members.
The eight firms that announced staff cuts were Holland & Knight LLP, DLA Piper, Bryan Cave LLP, Goodwin Procter LLP, Epstein Becker & Green, PC, Faegre & Benson LLP, Dechert, and Nixon Peabody. Read more here.

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More and More Changes in the Legal Field

The London branch of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is reportedly merging with recently formed claimants litigation firm Hausfeld LLP, which Michael Hausfeld started after his ousting from Cohen Milstein in November. The merger will be official later this month and will mark Hausfeld's foray into the international legal scene.

King & Spalding LLP has boosted its intellectual property practice with a three-partner team from Baker Botts LLP, including the former co-chair of the firm's international patent practice group. The group consists of Bruce W. Slayden II, who served as the co-chair of Baker Botts’ international patent practice group and as head of its intellectual property department.

As the worldwide economic crisis continues, DLA Piper has launched a formal layoff consultation that will likely eliminate 140 jobs in its United Kingdom offices. Nixon Peabody LLP, meanwhile, has decided to axe 20 attorneys and cut 36 other staff positions. The firms each released statements on the layoffs on Tuesday, couching the cuts as necessary to survive amid a relentless economic downturn.

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More Cuts

Approximately 250 to 300 support and secretarial staff at Hogan & Hartson LLP have been offered buyouts that include four weeks' pay and additional prorated payout if they leave the firm now, the firm confirmed Monday. Hogan & Hartson Chairman J. Warren Gorrell Jr. said that technological advances have decreased the demand for word processing and other secretarial work.


Lovells LLP has become the latest British firm to announce significant layoffs, reportedly saying Monday that it would soon cut up to 94 jobs, including those of 24 lawyers. Lovells has initiated a 30-day redundancy consultation designed to reduce jobs in practice areas most affected by the economic downturn, The Times of London reported.


California-based Luce Forward Hamilton & Scripps LLP has joined numerous other law firms cutting ranks because of the bleak economic climate, saying it would lay off 12 attorneys and 15 members of its administrative support staff.
“The layoffs are due to the current economic condition and primarily impact the transactional practice areas of the firm,” Luce Forward said in a statement Friday.

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Loss of Legal Jobs

As US Law Firms continue to cut back legal jobs, the legal market dwindles. The U.S. legal sector has reportedly lost 1,300 jobs in January alone, as widespread cuts across a range of industries pushed the national unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics released Friday. The plunge likely reflected a series of continued cutbacks among several major law firms as a slowdown in clients' business takes its toll on the need for legal work. Read more here.

The most recent to show the door to its attorneys and staffers is Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP. Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP has reportedly handed out pink slips to 11 attorneys and 17 staff members as a cost-cutting measure in tough economic times. The Chicago-based law firm's managing partner, J. William Roberts, said the layoffs were made across the board last week and did not target a particular practice group or office.

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New Developments in the Legal Field

On Monday, the same day the Morgan & Finnegan LLP boutique folded, five IP litigators at Keker & Van Nest LLP broke off from the San Francisco-based firm and started a fledgling boutique of their own. The new firm, Durie Tangri Lemley Roberts & Kent LLP, began operations Monday, partner Daralyn Durie said.
Intellectual property boutique Morgan & Finnegan LLP is shutting its doors and folding into Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP, which just scored more than 30 new lawyers for its offices in New York and Washington, in addition to a lawyer who will staff a new San Francisco office for the firm. Thirteen of the lateral lawyers join Locke Lord as partners, including John F. Sweeney, who had practiced at Morgan & Finnegan since 1973.

January saw about 20 top firms lay off lawyers and other employees, and February has gotten off to an equally grim start with Tuesday's announcement that McDermott Will & Emery is cutting 60 attorneys and 89 staff members. In a firmwide memo, Chairman Harvey W. Freishtat said a slowdown in the business of clients had caused a reduction in the firm's work, especially in transactions.

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Ropes Chairman R. Bradford Malts' e-mail to the firm

From: Malt, R. Bradford
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 4:41 PM
To: All Active Personnel
Subject: Reduction in Force

In October I wrote to you about the strength of our firm in the face of changing economic circumstances. I also said that our strength does not render us immune to what is happening in the broader economy. Our clients and marketplace have been seriously affected by the continuing global economic downturn, and the recession is now widely seen as the most serious since the 1930s.

Ropes & Gray continues to be sound, and we are grateful for the competitive advantages afforded by our talented attorneys and staff, and our diversified practices and client base. At the same time, we are cognizant of changing dynamics in our economic landscape and the need to align our staffing with the firm’s needs and outlook.

As a result, we have reluctantly decided to eliminate 106 staff positions across all departments in the firm, or 10% of non-lawyer staff. While I know this is painful news, I felt it was important to share with all personnel as soon as appropriate.

Our decision to undertake this reduction in workforce was not made lightly. We value our workforce as an integral part of our client service mission, and as a part of the extraordinary community of people that make Ropes & Gray what it is. Unfortunately, the changed external environment required us to make hard choices that could be avoided in more robust economic times.

We reached this difficult decision only after a thorough analysis of all possible areas for prudent cost reduction. We determined that, in addition to significant cuts in non-personnel expenditures that have been made or are forthcoming, it was necessary to reduce our staff numbers. These expense cuts and reductions in force represent an acceleration of our ongoing effort to provide clients with the most cost-effective, value added legal services possible. The bulk of the reductions occurred in the Boston and New York offices; Palo Alto and D.C. also experienced some reductions.

Affected employees were informed this afternoon and provided with severance benefits and outplacement counseling. The firm appreciates the contributions made by all affected employees, and we are working with them to ease their transition.

With today’s actions, we believe we have fully taken the necessary personnel steps to address current economic circumstances. We do not anticipate making any further non-lawyer or lawyer reductions in force.

Next week, the Policy Committee will begin annual State of the Firm presentations to associates, and meetings are being scheduled to address the same topic with our staff. At these forums, we are happy to address questions about these topics or any other issue that may be of concern to you.

While this is a difficult time, we continue to be well positioned to capitalize on opportunities that will arise from the current environment. I encourage all of us – staff and lawyers alike – to focus on the priorities that will help the firm continue to grow and provide the best client service anywhere. I thank all of you for your continuing hard work and commitment.

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Layoffs at Ropes & Gray LLP

Boston's Ropes & Gray, which gave their associates bonuses and raises for 2008, is reportedly laying off staff. Close sources at Ropes & Gray say that the firm has laid off 110 people firm wide today. According to my sources, no attorneys were laid off.

This does not stop Ropes & Gray LLP from expanding its New York office.
The New York Observer reports the firm is stretching out its legs in New York, taking a new floor in its 1211 Avenue of the Americas building.

"The law firm activated a provision of its 2005 lease of 250,000 square feet that allows it to take an additional floor in the tower. The lease gives Ropes & Gray the 32nd floor, which the Royal Bank of Scotland recently gave up, in addition to the space it occupies on floors 35 through 40 in the 45-story skyscraper."

Ropes & Gray LLP is a national law firm with offices located in Boston, New York City, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Washington DC, Chicago, Hong Kong and Tokyo; and conference centers in London and Providence, Rhode Island. The firm has over 850 lawyers worldwide. It was founded in 1865 by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray.

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Linklaters LLP

Linklaters LLP, the second-largest London law firm by revenue, is reportedly preparing to slash its associate work force and let go as many as 70 partners, as the Magic Circle firm tries to restructure operations amid the global financial crisis. Sarah Peters, a firm spokeswoman said "the worsening economic crisis and its effects on key clients means that reductions are necessary"

On Friday, Legal Week reported that Linklaters will reconstitute the staff by first saying goodbye to an estimated 35 partners worldwide, with other reports claiming that the number could be much higher. The Lawyer magazine reported on January 23, 2009 that Linklaters will cut as many as 70 partners and 10 percent of its salaried lawyers, citing people familiar with the plan.

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Akin Gump Cuts 65 From Its Staff

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is laying off 65 staff members from offices around the country, according to a spokeswoman for the law firm.
The announcement was reported Friday by the Wall Street Journal Law Blog and was confirmed by Akin Gump spokeswoman Sheila Turner on Tuesday.

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Today's updates on law firms

Dechert LLP has reportedly laid off 72 administrative staff from offices across the country, slashing 12.6 % of the firm's 570-member support staff in the U.S. According to Law360, the firm did not specify whether the cuts were economic or performance-based. The firm also did not indicate which positions were cut or how many staff were let go from each of the firm's 11 domestic offices.

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The court appointed receiver in the Dreier case, Mark Pomerantz, a partner at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, has officially filed for bankruptcy late Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of the New York-based law firm in the wake of founder and sole equity partner Marc S. Dreier's arrest on fraud charges.

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Unemployed Lawyers

Apparently the auto and bank industries are not the only ones to be hit by the financial meltdown and the jobless tsunami that followed. Law firms have been struggling for some time and now as the economy worsens, the number of unemployed lawyers nationwide has substantially increased.

Rumor has it that Ropes & Gray LLP is not going to give salary increases this December, however, bonuses are still forthcoming. Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP has reportedly reached out to King & Spalding LLP about the possibility of taking over the struggling firm in order to avoid dissolution. Legal Times has reported that King & Spalding may take over approximately 100 of Thacher's 195 lawyers, but that it's not yet clear which practices and offices the 100 lawyers would come from. A New York legal consultant has said that "There's a tremendous amount of uncertainty about who's going to be invited to the party."

Howrey LLP has let go of approximately 10 associates. The firm said in a statement on Thursday that these were not layoffs but “outplacements.”

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