The sythe cutting through top 100 law firms around the world is quietly claiming its first victims. At the bottom and middle end of the market we’ll never really know the effect of COVID-19 except to say that it’ll be awful. At the top end the news will leak out slowly as firms tend to need to make public statements to engender the confidence of clients. Womble Bond Dickinson are a perfect example of what we expect to see across the sector in the next 6-8 weeks, if not sooner
Womble Bond Dickinson is temporarily cutting pay across the firm’s U.S. offices and furloughing or laying off some employees to weather the economic shutdown from the coronavirus pandemic.
The trans-Atlantic Am Law 100 firm, which has about 550 lawyers in its U.S. offices, has instituted a 10% or less pay cut for all U.S. attorneys and staff, furloughed “some selected employees” and laid off “another small group,” Womble said in a statement to The American Lawyer.
Above the Law first published a report Monday about the cost-cutting measures following the firm’s Friday afternoon internal announcement. It’s not clear from Womble’s statement which employees were laid off or furloughed, but Above the Law said the layoffs included associates.
“In response to the economic disruption brought on by the novel coronavirus, Womble Bond Dickinson (US) chose to make certain adjustments to its business during this difficult time,” the firm said in the statement.
Read the full article at. https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2020/03/30/womble-lays-off-some-employees-cuts-pay-amid-pandemic/
