Paralegals & Legal Secretaries

Paralegal Employment Watch: Seyfarth Shaw

By ParalegalGateway.com

In December, Seyfarth Shaw laid off 30 attorneys. Today, the wheel came around to a number of staff:

As a result, we have made the very difficult decision to reduce the number of support staff positions in a limited number of offices, including ours. In Chicago, this has affected nine secretaries and five members of local department staff. A total of approximately 25 employees have been affected across the Firm.

A tipster reports:

Old ladies and people with 10+ years experience.

Read the full Seyfarth memo after the jump.

SEYFARTH SHAW -- MEMO -- STAFF LAYOFFS

As you know, our business - like most others - faces substantial challenges this year.

As a result, we have made the very difficult decision to reduce the number of support staff positions in a limited number of offices, including ours. In Chicago, this has affected nine secretaries and five members of local department staff. A total of approximately 25 employees have been affected across the Firm. This decision reflects, in part, the residual effect of the reduction in timekeepers announced in December, as well as the need for increased operational efficiency.

We are working with the affected employees to help ease the transition. We want to thank all of them for their service and contributions to the Firm.

Within the next day, we will communicate updated secretarial assignments with individual attorneys and secretaries.

While we recognize this is difficult news to learn, we felt it was important to share it with you as soon as it was appropriate. I am confident that, with your support, we can move forward together to meet and exceed our clients' needs. (Source>>>)

Full post as published by ParalegalGateway Blawg on January 15, 2009 (boomark / email).