Lawyer Layoff Patterns: Young Go 1st, and Top 10 JD Is No Shield
When law firms lay off attorneys, who is thrown overboard first?
Among the likely targets are junior lawyers, rather than partners, and a juris doctor degree from a major-name law school may offer them little if any protection, according to research by two law academics discussed today at the Georgetown University Law Center’s annual symposium on the future of BigLaw.
In particular, a JD from a top 10 law school may not shield an associate from being laid off if no partner at the firm graduated from the same law school, reported Paul Oyer, a business professor at Stanford University, during a panel discussion at the two-day conference, Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business as Usual? His research partner was business professor Scott Schaefer of the University of Utah, notes the Blog of Legal Times.
Another member of the panel, consultant Peter Zeughauser of the Zeughauser Group, speculated that a “sense of entitlement” among graduates of top law schools—who take jobs at major law firms only to pay off hefty student loans—could be hurting them when layoffs loom.
“They may have no intention of pursuing a BigLaw career and aren’t that productive while at the firm, which would make them more likely to be laid off,” Zeughauser says.
Also see:
ABAJournal.com: “Warnings Toll for BigLaw Firms Resistant to Change”
