Law firms are cutting down on everything from technology and outside marketing assistance to recruiters and consultants, experts say. When not outright eliminating those costs, firms are looking to renegotiate contracts to get better deals – which translates into less money coming into law-centric businesses. For full article click here.

For those of you who are following/want to follow the carnage at BigLaw the blogger “Above the Law” has linked up with “Lawschucks” to provide a “layoff tracker”. See these links: http://abovethelaw.com/2009/03/this_week_in_layoffs_031409.php http://lawshucks.com/layoff-tracker

A mixed collection of articles of interest: Brutal Week May Not Be the End of Law Firm Layoffs By the close of business on Friday the 13th, more than 1,100 lawyers and staff in the U.S. had been fired or asked to consider buyouts. Why so much pain in one week? Several theories are making [...]

Upcoming webinars, and a seminar for those of you in D.C.: WEBINAR: Socha-Gelbmann Update: LegalTech New York, EDRM & e-Discovery Trends Tuesday, February 10, 2009 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST (Duration: 1 hour) Link:  http://tinyurl.com/bg2xqt WEBINAR:  Best Practices Webinar: Kazeon hosts eDiscovery Panel Discussion with United States District Judge James M. Rosenbaum and Magistrate  Judge [...]

A bit of a mixed bag today: E-discovery Kazeon Systems has rolled out a range of pricing plans for its e-discovery products, hoping to entice customers amid lean economic times with one plan aimed at users who want to avoid big up-front costs.  A number of web sites have reported the Kazeon Systems roll-out but for [...]

As reported extensively in the media and the countless press releases by federal contracting companies, the Obama administration’s anticipated stimulus package could generate billions in federal contracting opportunities.  The package is likely to provide funds to the General Services Administration, military and other agencies overseeing government buildings to implement green technologies; offer grants to states [...]

Today’s National Law Journal has as its lead article a story about contract attorneys.  To read it, click here:

This will be the first in what we plan to be a series of briefs on legal markets throughout the country but those markets viewed from the perspective of contract attorneys.     As we discussed in our December 15, 2008 posting “Trends in the Market” (click here), the “on shore” legal centers of Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, [...]

From: The Recorder, January 5, 2009 Big tech companies haven’t stopped patenting their inventions, but more than ever they’re also buying others’ patents as a weapon in intellectual property litigation. In-house counsel know that the best defense against a high-stakes IP suit can be the ability to threaten the other side with suits based on [...]

Bankruptcy litigation news seems to dominate the legal media in the early days of 2009.  The Madoff case involves clawback issues, false trades, etc.  For some good background stories click here, and here and here. In the Dreier firm bankruptcy case, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheila M. Gowan has been selected as the Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee.  Currently a [...]