Careers

Times Are Getting Tougher On The Law Jobs Front

By lawjobspipeline

We’ve predicted tougher times ahead on the legal jobs front for a little while - hardly an act of mind-blowing prescience given the credit crunch - but it’s beginning to get ugly with layoffs and belt tightening all round with some of the major law firms.

Take Cadwaladers, for instance, whose 10 January press statement blamed “unexpected and persistent volatility” for their laying off 35 lawyers.  Cadwalader say they’re trying to mitigate losses through practice diversification and other initiatives, but also quickly point out that other firms, Clifford Chance (who laid off a six lawyer structured finance group in New York) and Thacher Proffitt (who let 50 legal staff go earlier in January) to name but two, are in similar circumstances.

The named firms, and others, are the most exposed to finance deals and the credit crunch problems.  But a slow down in the stock market and financial jitters will almost certainly lead to a reduction in commercial deals and a recessionary year ahead for the US, UK and the rest of the known world.  The WSJ Law Blog as more on the layoffs.

Expect the heat to go out of the market although - no pun intended - the MidEast legal market is likely to remain relatively buoyant if only because a sea of rising oil prices largely immunizes these jurisdictions to the slowdown being experienced elsewhere.

Full post as published by lawjobspipeline.com Blog on January 13, 2008 (boomark / email).