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    Categories: Lawyers

Downey Brand Lays Off 17 Legal Staff Members

The law firm of Downey Brand LLP has laid off 17 members of its staff, according to the Sacrament Bee. The law firm is located in Sacramento. The layoffs come in relation to 20 lawyers leaving the firm earlier this year.

The layoffs account for some 20 percent of the legal workforce at the firm and includes secretaries, paralegals and other employees. There were no attorneys laid off in this round of cuts. The layoffs took place only in the Sacramento office of the law firm. There are other offices in San Francisco, Reno and Stockton.

“The reality is that our business remains strong, but we didn’t need as much staff with the departure of 23 attorneys this year,” said Scott Shapiro, the firm’s managing partner. “It’s very difficult…It’s always hard to make these decisions. But the reality is that had to do what we could to continue to operate profitably and keep everybody else employed.”

According to Shapiro, the firm now has roughly 80 attorneys left.

The managing partners went on a retreat in March and elected Shapiro as the firm’s managing partner. They also elected Stan Van Vleck as the chair of the law firm. The retreat was called in response to attorneys leaving the firm to start their own, smaller law firms.

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Jim Vassallo: Jim is a freelance writer based out of the suburbs of Philadelphia in New Jersey. Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and minor in Journalism from Rowan University in 2008. While in school he was the Assistant Sports Director at WGLS for two years and the Sports Director for one year. He also covered the football, baseball, softball and both basketball teams for the school newspaper 'The Whit.' Jim lives in New Jersey with his wife Nicole, son Tony and dog Phoebe.

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