Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer undergoes a name change, offers buyouts to 140 legal secretaries
Arnold & Porter logo/Twitter.
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer has shortened its name and is seeking to reduce the number of legal secretaries working for the law firm.
“Kaye Scholer” was dropped from the brand name, email address and web domain, though the firm is keeping the longer name as its full legal name, the National Law Journal reported last week.
The move was followed by Monday’s in-house announcement that the firm is offering buyouts to its 140 legal secretaries in the United States, according to another National Law Journal article, as well as stories by Bloomberg Big Law Business and Above the Law, which broke the news.
Arnold & Porter chairman Richard Alexander told the National Law Journal and Bloomberg that the moves are not related to the firm’s financial health.
“Our firm is healthy; we exceeded our budget in 2017, and we are even better positioned for 2018,” he told Bloomberg.
Alexander said the firm is offering the buyouts because lawyers are using new technology to handle tasks once done by secretaries.
The name change came less than a month after billionaire Ira Rennert filed a suit against the firm alleging malpractice by lawyers at Kaye Scholer before it merged with Arnold & Porter last year. The National Law Journal covered the suit.
