US Law Firms Making Job Cuts

Tue, 10 Nov 2009

The National Law Journal has revealed that US law firms are making the largest job cuts for more than 30 years as the economic downturn takes its toll on the legal industry. The journal revealed that the top 250 legal firms in the US have axed 5,259 solicitors and lawyers in the past year, resulting in the first year on year fall in overall lawyer numbers in sixteen years. The number of lawyers in the USA fell by 4 per cent to 126,669 – only the third decline since records began in 1978.

The cuts have taken many law firms below 2005 levels, cancelling out any progress they have made in the past four years. At top law firms, almost a third of their growth of the last five years has been negated as a result of the cuts, which have been performed to try to keep legal costs reasonable.

The journal claims that Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jackson has been the worst affected law firm, cutting more than a quarter of its lawyers. 468 lawyers now work for the firm, a decrease of 26.4 per cent from the 636 of last year. 15 of the top 75 law firms axed more than 100 lawyers, and 7 of the top 50 culled over 200 lawyers. Partners remained unscathed on the whole.
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