Legal News

Thelen Fires 26 Associates as Firm Layoffs Spread West

By Dan Slater

It may not be as dramatic as losing 99% of your market cap in three months. But in the generally risk-averse law-firm world, laying off 26 associates and 85 staff, trimming your summer program from 11 weeks to eight weeks, and pushing back by several months the start date for first-years — all moves recently taken by Thelen — could portend a similar, Bear-ish fate: That the crisis is upon us. Here’s the story from The Recorder, and a post from Above the Law.

“It’s no secret that businesses generally and law firms in particular around the country are feeling recessionary pressures and dealing with them, and we have been giving consideration to how best we should [do so],” said Stephen O’Neal, the co-chair of Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner. “We’re being proactive.”

In 2006, San Fran-based Thelen Reid & Priest merged with New York-based Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner. Figures for 2007 showed the firm made $345 million in revenue, with PPP dropping 4 percent to $805,000.

Thelen is the first major Left Coast firm to announce layoffs, but, as we’ve reported, three New York firms — Cadwalader, Thacher Profitt and Clifford Chance — have also made staff cuts. Dechert announced layoffs, but then changed its mind. And, two weeks ago, Chicago-based Jenner & Block stripped equity status from ten partners.

Will any partners be axed at Thelen? “There were no changes in the partnership announced today,” O’Neal, a bit cryptically, told The Recorder. “Every year there are changes made to the partnership as part of our compensation cycle and that sometimes results in people leaving the firm as part of decisions made by the firm.”

According to the report, at least one associate was laid off in each of the 550-lawyer firm’s nine offices. O’Neal declined to describe the layoff packages given to those attorneys, but he said they were “what we understand to be market.”

LB’ers: We’re not necessarily shedding tears for the 2008 Thelen first-years who will have to wait a few extra months to begin making their BigLaw checks. But still, we know that after a long summer of studying for the bar and a post-bar trip, making rent in those fall months can become an issue. Any ideas for how those Thelenites can pass the down time? Or, should they cut their losses and jump back into the interview pool?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 20, 2008 (boomark / email).