Above the Law has picked up on some great doublespeak by US firm Alston & Bird as they try to divest themselves of more staff...
Above the Law report
If you can involuntarily defer incoming associates for a full year, why can't you do it with current associates? That way you can reduce your workforce without having to call it a "layoff," right?
Today, Alston & Bird announced a force restructuring of 14 attorneys and 38 staff.
It's not really a layoff (at least, not a layoff like the stealth layoffs the firm has been through over the past couple of months). But, these 52 employees are looking at something a little worse than a pay cut.
The firm wide memo explains it this way:
Today, we have notified 14 associates in our transactional practice areas that the demand for legal services is not sufficient to support their full-time positions. In addition, we are reducing our support personnel by 38 staff members across several of our offices.
As we have thought about ways to offer assistance with outplacement opportunities, we have tried to remain mindful of our professional commitment to the communities where we work and live. We therefore have established a program to place our lawyers in legal positions with public interest initiatives, pro bono and nonprofit groups, and clients through the end of the year. With the help and dedicated efforts of many partners and our professional staff, these opportunities have already been identified and will include continuing benefits, reduced pay from the firm, administrative support, and the possibility that, should demand pick up by year end, we will ask them to return to Alston & Bird.
So.. who's falling for that we wonder - see the rest of the report at http://abovethelaw.com/2009/04/alston_bird_cancels_14_lawyers.php
