Arbitration & Mediation

Negotiating Law Firm Lay Offs: the Two Professions

By Victoria Pynchon

When last we left Pauline on the train tracks, it was 1992 and she was being laid off by a law firm that paid her AmLaw100 salary and benefits.  Oh right.  That's me.

Network, network, network

I hadn't consciously built a professional network in 1992, but was fortunate that it had more or less been created for me.  I'd been handling environmental insurance coverage cases in the 8- to 9-figure range for a major international insurance carrier.  That carrier generally issued first level excess coverage to the Fortune 500 companies who claimed that their insurance carriers were obliged to defend and indemnify them for toxic cleanup actions.  Because those companies sued all their carriers both up and across the coverage profile, we litigated the cases in groups.  Joint Defense Groups.

The lawyers in the Joint Defense Groups worked together, strategized together, traveled to depositions together, and often settled cases together.  We appeared in Court together, argued motions together, worked on appeals and writs together, and played together as well.

So I turned for employment assistance to my friends and colleagues in the Joint Defense Group.  You'll remember that I was a twelfth year associate with no book of business, i.e., I had a marketing fool (myself) for a client (myself).  

I was not in demand at the level of practice I'd been working at.  Nevertheless, I had a lot of contacts in the Los Angeles legal community, who in turn had contacts.  As a result, I was unemployed for fewer months than my severance pay lasted.

But . . . . .

. . . I was about to cross the divide from one legal profession to another . . .

The peak on the right represents . . . law school graduates [who] joined . . .  commercial law firms. They are earning [between] $125,000 - $150,000 + per annum as they start [their careers]. . . . This peak, furthermore, is moving inexorably to the right in response to increased demand by these firms for premier entry level talent . . .

The peak on the left is a different matter. It represents all . . . law school graduates who are following career paths other than the top tier commercial law firms. They peak [around]  $35,000 to $40,000 compensation per annum[;] [r]oughly $100,000 a year less than their peers on the right!

From Rob Millard's Adventure of Strategy, America's Two Legal Professions, 24 September 2007.

Tomorrow, from tall buildings with sleek interiors to a storage room in a three man law firm. 

Full post as published by Settle It Now Negotiation Blog on February 16, 2009 (boomark / email).