Not only DLA Piper in HK… offices in the region are shedding staff..
A press release reveals that DLA Phillips Fox has also released several staff from its New Zealand offices in Auckland and Wellington in response principally to the property downturn, although the firm has not made any specific announcement relating to solicitors that have been "let go".
A firm spokesman told Scoop NZ that the majority of the cuts were in the Hong Kong office — the firm’s largest in the region, with over 100 lawyers — and were primarily focused on transactional practices.
Hong Kong is the Asian hub for capital markets work, which has fallen off dramatically worldwide since last fall. DLA Piper is one of several firms that built large practices in the area in anticipation of a continued stream of initial public offerings by emerging Chinese companies.
Other big capital markets players such as Linklaters and Allen & Overy are widely presumed to have included Hong Kong in recently announced global layoffs, but those firms have yet to detail their cuts by office.
Most foreign firms have far smaller offices in Asia than the Magic Circle firms or DLA Piper, and some partners at such firms are optimistic about avoiding similar cuts. One Hong Kong managing partner for a leading New York firm said that firms like DLA Piper had "just grown too big" and added that he thought his firm’s local office of fewer than 15 lawyers was "right-sized for the market."
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0903/S00075.htm
This strory is also being reported at http://www.abajournal.com/news/dla_piper_lays_off_20_lawyers_34_staffers_in_asian_offices/ by the ABA Journal (USA) They have lower figures for staff dismissed
