Milbank offers buyouts to legal secretaries in New York
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Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy is offering a voluntary buyout to its legal secretaries in New York in advance of a move next year from the Financial District to the West Side of Manhattan.
Milbank said in a statement that it is offering a generous voluntary package to the New York secretaries, report Above the Law and the New York Law Journal (sub. req.). The package includes “an incentive payment, severance commensurate with years of service and paid health benefits,” the statement said.
The package is intended to facilitate a transition to a “team-based legal support staff model, which is in widespread use throughout the industry,” the statement said. Milbank added, however, that it expects the majority of its legal secretaries to make the move to its new location.
Many law firms are streamlining operations and restructuring teams of paralegals and legal secretaries, according to Jamy Sullivan, executive director of legal search firm Robert Half Legal. The days of a single lawyer paired with a legal secretary are over, Sullivan told the New York Law Journal.
At larger law firms, Sullivan said, it’s common to see lawyer-secretary ratios of 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 for partner-level or higher support, and ratios of 6-to-1 or 7-to-1 for associate support.
