Legal News

?In Praise of Law Firm Layoffs?

By Ashby Jones

Our old friend Dan Slater (who, for those new to our work, used to write this very Law Blog), a few minutes ago published a piece on the NYT’s Dealbook site entitled “In Praise of Law Firm Layoffs.”

After setting the stage with the backstory on the troubles experienced by BigLaw in the past 16 months or so, Slater gets to it, and really doesn’t hold back, calling the layoffs, salary-slashings and start-date deferrals “the best thing to happen to the legal industry in years.” Writes Slater: “Call it a blessing amid a recession.”

For starters, writes Slater, there’s a benefit to corporate counsel, “who for too long have been bilked by a law firm compensation model that leads lawyers to prioritize their "hourly quotas," which determine year-end bonuses, over quality service.” He goes on: “Unfortunately, the same bar presidents and law firm managing partners who are in a position to do away with the billable-hour format are happy to write op-eds decrying the miserable tradition, yet are unwilling to lead the pack when it comes to taking action.”

But the real lucky ones, writes Slater, are the law-firm associates who’ve, yes, been laid off.

And what about all those 20- and 30-something associates who can no longer formulate excuses - ­ But I'm paying off my law school debt while I figure out what I want to do! - ­ to remain in the kinds of jobs that so many of my law firm friends describe as "soul-crushing"? For many lawyers at law firms, particularly those who spent the early part of their careers toiling in structured finance departments and contributing, in the end, nothing to nothing, this recession may be the thing that delivers them from more 3,000-hour years of such drudgery as changing the dates on securitization documents and shuffling them from one side of the desk to the other.

Like a relationship gone bad, clearly hopeless to everyone but the imprisoned, it often takes a forced exit to break the leash of inertia that collars so many smart law graduates to mind-numbing work. So don't pity these people. What they needed all along was liberation. Now they have it.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 01, 2009 (boomark / email).