Despite 'fragile' legal economy, managing partners say they don't expect lawyer layoffs
Despite reports this week of planned lawyer layoffs by Goodwin Procter and Weil Gotshal and Manges, as well as a 17-partner exit at Patton Boggs, managing partners of six major firms say they don’t expect a mass of competing legal partnerships–including their own–to follow suit as the year reaches its midpoint.
The six, who spoke on condition their names not be used, suggested that Weil’s plan to lay off 60 associates and 110 support staff reflects a slowdown in the mega-bankruptcy practice that shot the firm into the revenue stratosphere, rather than a weakness in the legal economy for corporate firms generally, reports the Am Law Daily in an article reprinted Friday by the New York Law Journal.
“We are not planning any layoffs,” said the managing partner of one top New York law firm. “We don’t have excess capacity. But that said, it’s a very fragile environment.”
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Weil Gotshal will lay off 60 associates, 110 support staffers; will other firms follow suit?”
ABAJournal.com: “Patton Boggs says 17 partners are exiting; some may open a Dallas office for Holland & Knight”
ABAJournal.com: “Goodwin Procter plans to close San Diego office, lay off 10 lawyers and 12 staff”
ABAJournal.com: “Weil Gotshal layoffs are start of a wave, consultant says (video)”
