JD Journal » economic recovery

Legal Sector Job Losses Continues to Decline

joshua — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:01:26 +0000

The number of job losses in the legal services industry continued to decline in February, according to the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday. The legal services sector shed 100 jobs last month, a decrease from the 1,100 jobs that were lost in January. During the past 12 months 37,100 legal service industry jobs were cut.

The news comes on the heels of a report this week that 26 percent of law firms in the U.S. planned to expand in the second quarter of 2010. Overall in the U.S., 36,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were shed in February. The unemployment rate managed to hold steady at 9.7 percent.

Revenue and Profits Down at Goodwin Procter

joshua — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:18:42 +0000

Goodwin Procter’s gross revenues fell 4% in 2009 to $658 million and per partner profits dropped 3% to $1.27 million. Although discouraging, in a year marked by layoffs, deferrals and salary cuts it could have been much worse. The good news is that the firm is not taking it out on its associates, at least the ones that haven’t been laid off. The firm is paying bonuses and although associate salaries have not been restored to where they would be without a freeze, they have been thawed and bumped up one level, without a base salary cut.

Managing partner Regina Pisa expects revenues to stay flat in 2010 with increased work in real estate and real estate capital as the recovery heats up.

Goodwin Procter LLP employs 900 attorneys in Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Silicon Valley, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington DC.

What Recession? K&L Gates Tops $1 Billion in Revenue

joshua — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:12:11 +0000

Unemployment is hovering at just over 10%, some states have seen home foreclosure rates as high as 25%, the economy continues to shed jobs, law firms are slashing salaries, retail sales continue to drop, but someone forgot to mention all of this to Pittsburgh based K&L Gates.

K&L Gates is one of the first major firms to report its 2009 revenues and the picture it paints stands in stark contrast to the doom and gloom on the nightly news. Revenues for the firm were up 8% to $1.034 billion and profits per partner were up by 1%.

The growth was driven by K&L Gates aggressive expansion which included the March merger will Bell Boyd & Lloyd, and new offices overseas in Singapore, Frankfurt and Dubai. Although the firm laid off 36 associates in March, overall the attorney nose count grew by approximately 150 to just over 1,700 total.

23 New Partners at Latham & Watkins

joshua — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:08:27 +0000

Latham & Watkins & Watkins promoted 23 of its associates to partner this week. With twelve promotions coming in corporate law and five more in finance, this could be viewed as a sign of optimism about the economic recovery. In addition, 13 associates were promoted to of counsel. & Watkins

Although this years class is smaller than the 30 promoted last year, it’s one of the largest classes we’ve seen so far this year. Only Kirkland & Ellis, who promoted 51 to partner in October, has had a larger partner class so far this year.

Latham & Watkins LLP is one of the largest law firms in the world, employing around 1,500 attorneys in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firm was started in Los Angeles in 1934 and has extensive California roots, but its largest office is now in New York City.

New Partner Class at Sullivan & Cromwell

joshua — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:59:48 +0000

Sullivan & Cromwell announced its latest class of partners and four of the five promotions are women. The firm highlighted family friendly policies like flex time and maternity leave, which are aimed at recruiting and retaining more female lawyers. Three of the five promotions came in the area of corporate law which could be a sign of the firm’s belief that the worst of the economic slump is behind us.

The new partners are Whitney Chatterjee, Marion Leydier, Sarah Payne, Zena Yoslov, and S. Eric Wang.

Sullivan & Cromwell has approximately 700 lawyers in 12 offices, located in financial centers in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States.

Law Firm Mergers are up in Third Quarter

joshua — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:14:14 +0000

According to a new report from Altman Weil 13 US law firms announced mergers in the third quarter. Although still sluggish compared to the 25 announced mergers in the first quarter, it’s a nice bump from the second quarter when only seven merger announcements were made.

Altman Weil is a legal management consultation company with over thirty years in business. It offers a broad range of services to law firms, corporate legal departments, governmental agencies and other legal service providers.