Layoffs mount at area law firms - Boston Business Journal:

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Yet that tale is becoming more common in Boston thesd days after a surge of attorne y layoffs in recent weeks has left at leastf 100 associates out of work and with few places to turn in such a tighyjob market. “There are very, very few said Brion Bickerton, a partner at the legal staffing firm Lindsey & Africa in Boston. “These people are goinv to really struggle, and some of them won’t find anythin full time for a year-plus. There’s really no placer to go.” Law firms that have cut attorneysz in recent weeks includwe FoleyHoag LLP, , Fish Richardson PC, and Cooley Godward Kronis LLP.
But even more firms are thoughtg to haveheld “stealth” layoffs by cuttingy associates through poor performance reviews to avoid publicl disclosing the layoffs, according to legalp watchers. Judy St. John, a legal recruiter from Boston-basexd Hoffman Recruiters LLC, has been contacted by laid-off first-yea associates who had only been with their law firmws forfive months, as well as by midlevel She’s also received calls from associateas who’ve been cut from firms through so-caller bad-performance reviews. St.
John said job requests in the legal division of Hoffman Recruiters have gone up 25 percent inrecent “I would rather be part of a layoffg for economic reasons than be told I’m not a good lawyer,” St. John “That’s damaging on so many Erin E. Breen, 24, a third-year student at Law had to face the realitiesz of the job markett when the law firm that hired her asa first-year associat e for next September — the 240-lawyer, New York-basedf firm Dreier LLP — closed last mont h after managing partner Marc S.
Dreier was indictecd by a federal grand jury on fraud Since then, Breen has been attending Boston Bar Associationm events and networking with everyone she But she acknowledges it’s going to be an uphill battle securing a job in this market. “Afted you get upset, you need to move on and come up with a It is really hardand it’s easy to get I think the key to this whole thint is to stay optimistic,” Breen Meanwhile, according to legal experts, the widespreafd layoffs have fed fear throughout partner rank s that some firms may not be as stablse as they were once thought to be. “It’s very somber right now,” St.
John “The only movement really is partners who are takingfa long, hard look at their situations. We’ve had many partners call and generally theywill say, ‘I’m but it’s time to explore.’ ” Indeed, Stephen manager of legal recruiting and client relationsd at Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP in is constantly being contacted by recruiters representing partners as well as “I think law firms are being very cautious at this time and waitingh to see how 2009 will play out beforer doing any significant hiring,” Lable The layoffs have created a climate of instabilityh at the start of the year in the legalp community, and more fallout is expected in the coming weeks and months, accordingg to Paul Clifford, a principalo at Boston-based Law Practice Consultants LLC.
“There’s a lot of tensionb in the systemright now,” Clifford said.