Last week, we wrote about how we can help our colleagues who have recently been downsized, merged, purged, laid-off or, god forbid, "rightsized" into oblivion. As you may have heard, yesterday was another Black Monday. The National Law Journal reported that the law firm layoffs haven't let up. Four major firms announced job cuts on Monday, totaling more than 300 attorneys and 522 support staff. White & Case plans to cut 200 associates and 200 administrative staff. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius cut 55 attorneys and 161 staffers.King & Spalding cut 37 associate spots and 85 support staff, while K&L Gates eliminated 36 associates and 76 staffers in its U.S. offices. Legal consultants said they don't see the job cuts slowing down any time soon.
The Estrin Report picks Gibson Dunn & Crutcher as possibly joining the next wave of layoffs. Anonymous reports from paralegals indicate that staff is reading murder mysteries in an effort to kill time. When knocking on doors for work - any kind of work, they are told from partners and associates alike, that they have no cases lined up. Keep your fingers crossed for the folks over there that something will come in over the transom.
In the meantime, our HACO project is working! Help a Colleague Out by passing your job leads forward has prompted some good samaritans to send us some job leads that we are posting to www.knowparalegal.com. If you know of a job lead, don't want it, didn't get it, don't qualify for it or just heard about it, pass it forward! Let us know about it. We'll post it to our job bank so that others can find out about it and apply. Not all openings are listed on websites, Craig's list, the local paper or association job bank. Keep those listings coming so that we can give those who have recently lost their jobs a chance to learn of leads they might not otherwise find. If you have some inside information that might help, let us know.
We might not be able to stem the bleeding but by banding together, we can help others help themselves. Send your leads to info@knowparalegal.com. Let us know if you want us to acknowledge the donor. Thanks. Let's be careful out there.
