Legal News

Legal budget cuts resulting in ousting of in-house

By Richard Binder

While mass layoffs at big law firms have grabbed headlines in recent months, in-house attorneys also have had their jobs taken away. At tech companies like Creative Labs, eBay, Symantec Corp. and Cadence Design Systems Inc., lawyers have been let go as part of company-wide cuts over the past six months, according to people familiar with the layoffs.

Cadence, which makes semiconductor design tools, cut 625 people in November, including one lawyer and three legal staffers from its 27-person legal department.

Cuts at other companies have mirrored Cadence's situation, with only a few lawyers being let go as part of mass layoffs. In large part, that's because legal departments aren't that big to start with. It's also because the bigger cost often isn't a company's own lawyers, but the ones it hires for $600 an hour from law firms.

To that end, general counsel have been asking law firms to cut rates. And at some companies, some legal work is now being sent to India, where rates are a fraction of what they are here. 

Full story at The Recorder.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).