In July 2009, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft put 34 associates on an involuntary sabbatical.  Now, as reported by Above the Law (click here) the firm is offering to hire them back as contract attorneys, with possible hourly pay between $45 and $65.  The web site Law and More (click here) follows up with two major [...]

  Midsize law firms in the Midwest, outside the biggest cities, are hiring lawyers, opening offices and bringing on new associates this fall as they fare better than many larger urban rivals in the face of the recession. Law firm leaders at the firms, with between 100 and 450 lawyers, say their better fortunes are [...]

Confronted with orders to control legal costs and rein in expenses, general counsel throughout California are now taking dramatic steps that were virtually unheard of only a few years ago. Salaries are being decreased. In-house lawyers and staff are getting pink slips. Law firms are being pressured to lower their hourly rates. And some companies [...]

As has been reported, there were layoffs this week at Womble Carlyle.   But that was not the big news.  The big news was Womble decided to address the general retrenchment of the legal market in a very frank way, remarking on a sea change in corporate law practice.  “The world of large law firms … has changed forever” said Womble Carlyle in an internal memo.   [...]

We covered Richard Susskind’s speech at the ABA TechShow (click here) and we had previously covered his thoughts in our “Changing Legal Landscape” series (click here). Today’s Legal Blog Watch reports on a trend of BigLaw being dumped for lower-priced boutiques following the lead of DuPont and adding firms with 300 or fewer lawyers to [...]

The paradigm-shift Almost 7,000 lawyers have been laid off in the first two months of this year.  And all are not yet accounted for.  In today’s New York Times Adam Cohn dissects the paradigm-shifting changes taking place in the legal profession.  Noting the massive layoffs and venerable firm closures, Cohen suggested that these events are [...]

  Two Skadden partners, Andrew Sandler and Benjamin Klubes, announced to the firm’s associates that they’re jumping ship to form their own law firm, BuckleySandler.   Sandler assured associates that his exit was motivated by a desire for change rather than concern about the firm’s stability. But some aren’t so sure and say this move has significant implications for Big Law. [...]

According to an article on today’s law.com site, as laid-off lawyers are scrambling for jobs many are considering other practice areas, other locations, in-house jobs and jobs with smaller firms.  And they are going to D.C. According to Stephen Stone of Cambridge Counsel, there are more big firm jobs in Washington, D.C., than Atlanta for instance, since it has more [...]

  Even with contract attorneys providing law firms the opportunity to cut their bills/its costs with respect to e-discovery, the expenditures can still be prohibitive, particularly in high-cost regions like D.C. and New York where the cost to house document reviewers on a contract basis is higher than elsewhere in the U.S.   As we have reported [...]

Last night’s and this morning’s lead story in the legal media:  800 law firm jobs lost in one day.  And there will be more firings to come (click here for a sample).    For the contract attorney market there is a little gloating and perhaps a little schadenfreude.  Especially in the switch by AmLaw 200 advisers who first [...]