JD Journal has provided its weekly headcount for legal jobs lost last week in the States..
Here’s their roundup
This week in law firm layoffs:
- Gibson Dunn & Crutcher: 36 staff
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom: undisclosed lawyers, 50 staff
- Bose McKinney & Evans: 10 lawyers, 15 staff
- Clifford Chance: 24 lawyers
- Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge: 25 lawyers, 35 staff
- Dechert LLP: 63 lawyers, 62 staff
- Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP: undisclosed
- Saul Ewing: 7 lawyers, 7 staff
- Goldberg Kohn: 9 lawyers, 14 staff
- Wolf Block: 317 lawyers, undisclosed staff
- Total this week: 455 lawyers, 219 staff.
Last week: 91 lawyers, 177 staff
The week before: 574 lawyers, 812 staff
And if you want to know more about the Skaddern Arps situation.. Above The Law have managed to speak to a few people and publish this following report
Staff Layoff Watch: The Bell Tolls for Skadden Staff
Friday, March 27
Like many of you, we’ve heard the rumors about significant staffing cuts at Skadden all week. We now understand that all of the affected individuals have been informed, and we can now appreciate the scope of Skadden’s actions. Here is the bad news for Skadden staff:
* We understand that over 50 legal support staffers have been let go from the firm.
* In addition to those support staffers, the staff attorney program at Skadden has been greatly reduced. Only staff attorneys that were "integral" to ongoing matters have been kept on. And there is no word on whether those people will have any job security after their matters wrap up.
* The cuts were spread across all of Skadden’s U.S. offices, but at this point international offices remain unscathed.
* No associates were let go.
At some level, staffing cuts at Skadden are not surprising. Last week, we reported that two major Skadden DC partners were leaving the firm. We now understand that they took ten associates with them. We understand that associates participation in the Sidebar program has been very strong. It is a bit too early to tell what the final numbers will be for participation in that program, but our sources report that one of the reasons for the strong early numbers is that Skadden partners are using their contacts to find objectively interesting public service opportunities.
Full report at http://abovethelaw.com/2009/03/staff_layoff_watch_the_bell_to.php
and the Am Law Daily also has a report on Skadderns
and over at Cliffor Chance..
Clifford Chance Lays Off 24 New York Associates
London’s Clifford Chance today laid off 24 of its New York associates.
It is expected that the firm will announce further layoffs shortly. Also, incoming associates will be deferred to January and October 2010.
Just yesterday the firm voted to implement a plan to restructure its partnership.
