Bingham Lays Off 10 More Staffers
Updated: Bingham McCutchen has laid off 10 staffers at its Hartford, Conn., office. The cuts follow the layoffs of 17 staffers in the San Francisco area in May.
Bingham spokeswoman Claire Papanastasiou told the Wall Street Journal Law Blog the layoffs affect managers and administrative staffers.
Papanastasiou told ABAJournal.com that an initial report of 11 layoffs was wrong and the correct number is 10. Lawyers will be spared from the cuts. “There will be no lawyer layoffs,” she said.
Papanastasiou said the layoffs are based on the law firm’s continual assessment of its business practices. She said lawyers are doing more of their work on computers, decreasing the need for administrative help. She notes that the firm has about 1,100 nonlawyer staffers and the layoffs amount to a small percentage of that number.
She adds that the firm had a record year in 2007 and says its financial performance is even stronger this year. The law firm does a lot of restructuring work and its performance is countercyclical. “This has nothing to do with the firm’s financial performance,” she says of the layoffs.
Updated at 10:45 a.m. to add comments and a correction on the number of layoffs offered by Papanastasiou.
