Legal News

McKee Nelson Lays Off Attorneys and Staff; Co-Founder Optimistic

By Nathan Koppel

The news in BigLaw has been pretty dour of late, what with firms folding on the Left Coast and countless others laying off lawyers.

McKee Nelson is the latest to suffer a setback, announcing today that it dismissed 17 corporate finance associates and 15 staff. The layoffs are a result of a steep decline in one of the firm’s biggest practices — structuring mortgage-backed and asset-backed securitizations

“This is market driven, not the fault of these kids,” firm co-founder William Nelson told the Law Blog. (About this time last year, we noted that McKee Nelson encouraged associates and counsel to take sabbaticals, consider changing practice groups or leave the firm.)

McKee Nelson previously had re-located 24 attorneys, who had voluntarily agreed to leave. With the latest departures, the firm is down to 174 lawyers from a high of more than 200. Its profits-per-partner will be down this year by about 10 percent, Nelson says.

But things are looking up, he believes, thanks to bailout efforts by the U.S. and foreign governments. “What we are beginning to feel, for the first time in about 16 months, is a little bit of energy as things feel like they have bottomed out.”

Nelson says the firm’s other practices, including tax, litigation and white collar, are doing well, generating in excess of $1 million in revenue per lawyer. “We’ll get right back up to the top,” he says.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).