JD Journal » unemployment

Ex-employee Files Suit Against Former Law Firm

jim — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:00:33 +0000

Hartwell Harris, a resident of Santa Monica, has filed a lawsuit against her former employer for wrongful termination. Harris claims she was fired for developing a rare sleeping disorder, removing her from a job at an international law firm. The firm in question is that of Bingham McCutchen LLP, which is headquartered in Boston and operates offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Harris claims she received poor performance reviews after being diagnosed with her rare sleeping disorder.

Harris began suffering from a bad back that eventually required spinal surgery and physical therapy. She was forced to take time off from work because of the surgery and therapy. Harris claims that she was subjected to reviews in the middle of year that were biased and based on rumors. Harris was diagnosed with Delayed Sleep-Phase Syndrome, or DSPS, in April of 2010.
A short-term disability leave was granted by her law firm, which then placed her on unpaid leave before firing her in February of 2011. Harris claims in the lawsuit that her firm did not accept the accommodations recommended by her doctor. Those accommodations included flexible work hours and/or telecommuting. Harris received her law degree from UC Berkeley and attended Princeton University.
“I was really disappointed because I had worked really hard to get where I was,” Harris said. “I was really disappointed for a long time afterward because I did a lot of research to find a place to work where I would stay for my career.”

When Harris was fired, she was working on securities litigation but now runs her own law firm based out of Santa Monica.
“Bingham took Ms. Harris’ requests for accommodation seriously and accommodated them reasonably,” a statement from the firm said. “It’s unfortunate that Ms. Harris selected this course, and we look forward to a favorable resolution of this matter.”

The law firm that fired Harris is well known around the world, especially in financial centers in New York, London, and Tokyo. The law firm works with companies such as BMW, Nokia, Bank of America and General Motors and their clients. The law firm also works with individuals such as J.K. Rowling and Larry King.

Dr. Susan Sprau, of the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital’s Sleep Disorder Center, had the following to say:

“You have to realize that when you are working against your body’s natural biology, it is an uphill battle and there isn’t a quick or easy or perfect fix,” she said. “People who have this problem tend to take night jobs.”

Doctor Sprau said that those diagnosed with DSPS can improve their situation if they make adjustments to their schedules. Sprau said that the most effective adjustments are to schedule classes and meetings in the afternoon, not the morning, so the patient can have a chance to adjust to being awake.

February A Rough Month For The Legal Industry

joshua — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:28:42 +0000

Looking at the broad picture, the economic recovery appears to finally be taking hold in the labor market. Modest gains in employment last month pushed the national unemployment rate down below 9%, but things were much more bleak within the legal industry. According to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, February saw a loss of 2900 jobs in the legal sector.

The report, which was released on Friday, showed a national gain of 192,000 non farm jobs for the month, with the largest growth coming in manufacturing and construction, although this followed a month of widespread construction job losses, attributable to harsh weather.

Ruden McClosky Axes 16 Staff

marvins — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:39:08 +0000

Ruden McClosky, a Florida-based law firm, slashed 16 staff members in line with the its reorganization plan to cut expenses, increase revenue and standardize the three-to-one lawyer-to-secretary ratio. The layoff did not include lawyers or paralegals. The affected workers were basically from the administrative and support division, including the longtime library director and several secretaries who have been with the firm for more than 20 years. The axed employees were generally concentrated in the Fort Lauderdale office, which removed 13 of its staff members. The West Palm Beach office slashed two and Orlando eliminated one.

Ruden’s co-managing partner, Carl Schuster, explained that the firm is currently focusing on increasing its profitability across the Florida market. “Ruden McClosky continues to implement changes that are in line with today’s law firm standards for best practices, which include maximizing efficiencies while enhancing the firm’s technological capabilities.”

Ruden McClosky has been greatly affected by the recent economic recession and real estate clash. As a result, the firm experienced partner defections, employed mass layoffs and closure of some of its offices. New co-partner elect Michael Kru said that the firm is now poised to grow and is looking to hire new associates. Kru also assured that there are no layoffs slated in the coming months after the recent downsizing.

Oil Companies Want to Put CA Climate Law on Ice

julie — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:52:38 +0000

In 2006, California adopted a law that would cut greenhouse gas emissions by California oil refineries, manufacturers, cement plants, utilities and other carbon polluters starting in 2012. A new initiative slated to appear on the ballot in November is aimed at delaying that cut in emissions until the state has an unemployment rate under 5.5%. The unemployment rate in CA as of February 2010 was 12.8%. Oil companies are pushing particularly hard on this initiative, asserting that complying with the law as it is will cost California more than a million jobs, according to a study done at California State University, Sacramento. That study is widely disputed.

According to yahoo.com, “The California Air Resources Board, the entity charged with implementing the law, estimates climate regulations will promote investments in clean energy and will reduce California’s overall fuel expenses $3.8 billion by 2020.” More on this can be found at EmploymentSpectator.com.

Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to fight the initiative, as it undermines what he believes is his legacy as governor. Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has vowed to suspend the climate law if she wins the election in November.

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.

The State of the Union: What to Watch for

joshua — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:39:26 +0000

Tonight may well be the most important speech of President Obama’s political life. His signature issue, health care reform, is on the ropes. His unfavorable ratings are rising and the Democrats have suffered some embarrassing losses in special elections, capped with the loss of the Senate seat held for a generation by Edward Kennedy. A year ago the democrats were riding high on a wave of popular support; today that wave has crashed to the ground and the party appears to be in disarray. What will the President do tonight to pick up the pieces?

- Health Care. This is Obama’s signature issue and aides have already said he’ll be talking about it tonight. In his last address to Congress he laid out a compelling case of the need to take action but was light on specifics, preferring to leave it up to Congress to shape the bill. The result is a mish mash of pork laden policy that adds 45 million people to a dysfunctional health care system and is viewed by the public as massive overspending at a time when we need fiscal discipline. The current bill is supported by only 30% of Americans but a majority still believe that health care reform is necessary. Look for Obama to return to specifics and call on Congress to pass a bill with genuine reform of the system that embraces some Republican cost cutting ideas.

- The economy. There is a perception that Obama has focused too much on wall street and not enough on restoring jobs for the middle class. The irony is that his policies have largely worked to reinvigorate the economy and get credit flowing again. The free flow of credit is critical to rebuilding the economy but it’s difficult to sell the notion that it’s working when the job market hasn’t rebounded yet. Look for Obama to propose some populist symbolic gestures tonight, like curtailing discretionary spending. Without tackling entitlements such as social security and medicaid, or cutting defense spending, the cuts will have only minimal impact but will have broad symbolic appeal.

- Jobs. A hefty section of the speech will have to be about jobs. The President will propose spending $8 billion on developing high speed rail networks and will tout it as a job creating measure. High speed rail is good for the country and will create some jobs, but because America has no experience with high speed rail much of the equipment will need to be purchased from European companies. In the end this may be a symbolic gesture as well. Look for him to mention specific locations for high speed rail such as Florida, where a tight senate race is developing.

- Appeal to the base. Liberal democrats are unhappy with the President after one year in office, believing that he’s abandoned them. Although much of that is based on projection – Obama ran as a moderate, not a radical – he will need to regain their support without alienating independents. Rumor has it he’s going to call on Congress to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell tonight.

More Cuts at the San Joaquin DA’s Office

joshua — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:58:03 +0000

A total of eleven District Attorneys were laid off last year in San Joaquin, California, with seven of those happening last month. The department, like most California state and local government offices, is facing steep budget cuts. The DA’s that were cut mainly handled misdemeanor prosecutions, including DUI’s and some domestic abuse cases. The office is concerned they won’t be able to prosecute all of the cases that come to it. According to deputy district attorney Robert Himelblau, “We just can’t say we’re going to refuse to prosecute misdemeanors, on the other hand, we can’t fool anybody by saying we can actually file these cases”.

The County is facing additional layoffs this year, with as many as 600 county jobs in jeopardy if there isn’t significant improvement by June. San Joaquin is struggling under a record high 16.9% unemployment rate, well above the national average of around 10%. No help is likely to be forthcoming from the state, either, where the unemployment rate remains over 12% and the state budget has a $20 billion deficit.

FTC Closes its Doors to New Applicants

joshua — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:35:36 +0000

Deferrals, layoffs, low offer rates for summer associates… what’s next? Apparently things have gotten so bad that even the federal government doesn’t want any more lawyers. The FTC announced today that it was closing its application process for current positions early – they already have more applicants than they can handle.

BLS: Legal Industry Lost 2,700 Jobs in July

Erik Even — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:22:45 +0000

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the US legal services industry lost another 2,700 jobs in July, a 0.23% drop.

The industry employs 1.13 million lawyers and staff.

In July the US economy overall gained a few jobs — the nation’s unemployment rate fell from 9.5% in June to 9.4% in July.

Some of the biggest July job losses were at DLA Piper (20 lawyers and 100 staff) and at Fulbright & Jaworski (85 staff).

US Legal Sector Lost 4,200 Jobs in February

Erik Even — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:50:30 +0000

According to a report issued Friday by the US Department of Labor, the legal services sector shrank by 4,200 in February 2009.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the 0.36% drop from January reflects a continued series of layoffs by US firms.

Here’s a complete rundown of last week’s major law firm layoffs.

Since February 2008, 21,000 jobs have been lost in the legal sector.

As a whole, the US economy shed 651,000 jobs in February, and the national unemployment rate rose to 8.1%, up from 7.6% in January.

Unemployed Lawyers Invited to Volunteer for Pro Bono Work

Erik Even — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:01:57 +0000

Above the Law is mocking an Illinois legal aid society for offering unemployed lawyers the chance to volunteer for pro bono work. CARPLS offers legal aid to low-income residents of Cook County.

A local legal aid provider is seeking unemployed lawyers as volunteers to staff its telephone hotline for low-income families in need of legal advice…The volunteers must be licensed Illinois lawyers and are asked to work on the CARPLS hotline for at least four hours each week on a morning or afternoon shift. [Al] Schwartz said CARPLS officials hope that between 40 and 50 out-of-work lawyers will volunteer for the new program. The new volunteers will supplement the work of 32 paid staff lawyers, Schwartz said.

CARPLS officials posted a job description for the new program on craigslist and other online sites Thursday afternoon, Schwartz said. By Friday morning, there were about 35 responses, he added. The first response was from a lawyer who was offended because she was being asked to work for free, according to Schwartz. The rest of the responses came from lawyers interested in participating in the program, he added.

It makes sense to me that unemployed attorneys waiting for the economy to pick up might as well use their free time to help the underserved.It would look good on the ol’ CV as well.

Via ATL. CARPLS site.

US Legal Market Lost 7000 Jobs in 2008

Erik Even — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:53:05 +0000

According to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal services industry in the United States shed some 7,000 jobs between December 2007 and December 2008.

The numbers include lawyers, paralegals, public relations specialists, secretaries and other positions; and reflect layoffs by firms nationwide over the last few months, and the dissolutions of Am Law 100 firms Heller Ehrman, Thelen, and Thacher Proffitt & Wood.

In all, 2.6 million US jobs were lost in 2008, the biggest fall in more than six decades.

But the number of legal services jobs actually increased in December by 1,300.

Joblessness in US Drops Slightly from 26-year High

Erik Even — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:29:55 +0000

The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, according to a government report.

The Labor Department reported that initial filings for state jobless benefits fell to 554,000 for the week ending December 13th. That was a decline of 21,000 from the 26-year high of 575,000 claims a week earlier.

Economists were expecting jobless claims slip to 558,000. But the reduction in filers “really was not enough to offset the significant gain we saw after the Thanksgiving holiday,” said economist Andrew Gledhill.

The number of people continuing to collect unemployment declined to 4.38 million in the week ending December 6th, the most recent data available. This was a decrease of 47,000 from the preceding week.

The rash of unemployment claims shows no sign of slackening, according to Gledhill, and may hit the retail sector particularly hard as consumers reign in spending.

The number of new jobless claims rose the most in Tennessee, rising by 12,170 due to layoffs in the manufacturing industry, the Labor Department said.

Wisconsin saw jobless claims fall the most, by 8,593, due to fewer layoffs in the construction, manufacturing and service industries.

Via CNN Money via BizChuck.

Many from Heller, Thelen Remain Jobless

Erik Even — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:40:24 +0000

After the dissolution of Heller Ehrman and Thelen LLP, hundreds of attorneys were left without work.

Now, months later, many are still unemployed, even after some of the nation’s largest firms hired entire departments.

Most of the unemployed from both firms are in New York, Washington, and San Francisco.

Heller had 550 lawyers when it officially dissolved on September 26th.

About 130 of Thelen’s 400 lawyers continue to associate themselves with the firm, and 81 lawyers from Heller still have not found new employment.

Given the continually declining economy and an over-saturation of out-of-work attorneys, those Heller and Thelen lawyers still seeking new positions are looking “to snag government jobs, start their own firms, join small boutiques or relocate.”

Via National Law Journal.

The Upside of Being a Laid-Off Lawyer: Facial Hair

Erik Even — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:31:25 +0000

The Wall Street Journal, having nothing else to report on, writes that newly unemployed Wall Street refugees are luxuriating in the freedom to grow facial hair.

Facial hair is showing up on more former corporate types. It’s one of those tiny luxuries unleashed by unemployment, a time when people are briefly released from workaday habits and may wish to take stock of their lives before setting out anew. Al Gore grew a beard after losing the tumultuous presidential election of 2000. Neatly trimmed, it looked cozy and anti-establishment as he pursued creative projects on his way to the Nobel Peace Prize.

There’s even a Celebrity Beard Slideshow. Thanks, WSJ!

It’s a surprise to those of us on the Left Coast that Wall Street still bans facial hair. Also, what about the female laid-off lawyers and MBAs. Are they letting the leg stubble return?

Via ClayTravis.net.