2009 was the Worst Year Ever for Law Firm Layoffs
According to LawShucks.com, 2009 will go down as the worst year ever for law-firm layoffs. More people were laid off by more firms than had been reported for all previous years combined. The good news is that the layoffs peaked in March 2009, and were at their lowest point of the year in December 2009 -- auguring for a better 2010.
The site tracked 12,196 people laid off by major firms in 2009, of which 4,633 were lawyers and 7,563 were staff. Make sure to check the tracker for the methodology – and LawShucks is aware that layoffs are severely underreported, a trend that increased as the year went on.
All told, they tracked 218 reports of layoffs at 138 law firms in 2009. Clifford Chance led the way, with an astonishing 10 different events reported. DLA Piper had seven, Baker & McKenzie six, and Cadwalader, Dechert and Faegre & Benson each had four. Twelve other firms had three and 27 had two, leaving 93 firms that had a single round of layoffs reported.
