5,259 lawyers, to be exact, were laid off, which amounts to a drop of 4 percent. This is the largest decline ever reported by the National Law Journal, which started collecting information in 1978. Since that time, there has only ever been two other drops recorded: one equaling less than 1 percent in 1993, and a 1 percent decline in 1992.

While the associates dropped by 8.7 percents at the large firms, partners increased by just under 1 percent.
According to law firm consultant Ward Bower, “The cuts made were done primarily to preserve workloads for partners. It suggests that work done by partners is work that associates could do.”

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson showed the largest loss, percentage-wise, with a drop of 26.4 percent, or 168 lawyers.

Latham and Watkins saw the highest amount of lawyers, by number, get the axe. That firm saw 444 lawyers lose their job, which, for the firm, equaled a drop of 19.1 percent.

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The firm sent out a memo to employees stating that actions they had taken in response to the “slow economic recovery” were not enough and they claimed that the firm was at “overcapacity” in regards to their current workload.

The firm had already cut incoming classes and, according to the memo, they hoped that the market would pick up as this class transitioned from first years to second years.

According to reports, men and women were crying in the halls in response to the news.

It looks like there are 21 young lawyers in need of a good Legal Authority.

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