2/15/09

BigLaw Layoff Trends: DLA Piper

Last week, DLA Piper announced that they were laying off 80 attorneys and 100 staffers.  Over the past week, we've tracked DLA Piper to see which attorneys have been coming and going, and we've found some interesting trends that we thought we'd share with you.
All Bad News?  
Turns out that DLA Piper added 11 attorneys during the week.  The Singapore office brought on 6 new associates to bolster their Corporate group.  Five associates were hired in various European offices (Cologne-2 ; Oslo-1; Hamburg-1; Paris-1).  
Who Received Pink Slips?
According to the information we obtained, the layoffs were handed out to 66 associates and 5 Of Counsel.  Interestingly enough, the Of Counsel were equally distributed over 5 offices (Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego and Tampa.)
Amazingly, from what data we could pull, the 66 associates were equally split with 33 being male, and 33 being female.  The Of Counsel were 4 male, 1 female.

Associates

Male

33

 

Female

33

Of Counsel

Male

4

 

Female

1
Where Were the Layoffs?
There were 16 offices where attorneys received pink slips last week.  New York and Chicago took the brunt of the layoffs with 14 and 11 respectively.  

Atlanta

4

Baltimore

3

Boston

2

Chicago

11

Dallas

3

Los Angeles

6

New York

14

Northern Virginia

1

Philadelphia

3

Phoenix

2

Sacramento

1

San Diego

4

San Francisco

3

Silicon Valley

6

Tampa

3

Washington DC

5

 Total

71
Which Practice Groups Were Affected?
Transactional groups were hit the hardest by the layoffs.  All but 13 layoffs were in the transactional groups, with Corporate and Finance getting almost half of the total layoffs.  Litigation was not spared, losing 11, and IP lost 2.

Commercial Contracts

2

Corporate

26

Employment

1

Finance

9

Intellectual Property

2

Litigation

11

Real Estate

17

Regulatory & Government Affairs

1

Tax

2
Which Practice Groups in Which Office??
It seems that DLA Piper didn't make wholesale cuts in specific practice groups within specific offices.  The most any specific group lost in any specific office was five.  The Silicon Valley office lost 5 within their Corporate group, and the New York office lost 5 within their Finance Group.  

Commercial Contracts

Chicago

1

 

Dallas

1

Corporate

Atlanta

2

 

Baltimore

1

 

Boston

1

 

Chicago

4

 

Los Angeles

1

 

New York

3

 

Northern Virginia

1

 

Phoenix

2

 

Sacramento

1

 

San Diego

1

 

San Francisco

2

 

Silicon Valley

5

 

Tampa

1

 

Washington DC

1

Employment

Chicago

1

Finance

Atlanta

1

 

Chicago

1

 

Los Angeles

2

 

New York

5

Intellectual Property

San Diego

2

Litigation

Boston

1

 

Dallas

1

 

Los Angeles

1

 

New York

2

 

Philadelphia

3

 

San Diego

1

 

Silicon Valley

1

 

Washington DC

1

Real Estate

Atlanta

1

 

Baltimore

1

 

Chicago

4

 

Dallas

1

 

Los Angeles

2

 

New York

4

 

San Francisco

1

 

Tampa

2

 

Washington DC

1

Regulatory & Government Affairs

Washington DC

1

Tax

Baltimore

1

 

Washington DC

1
What are the "Trends" Found in the DLA Piper Layoffs?
The trend of this specific round of layoffs was that the pink slips were handed out across a broad range of Practice Groups, Offices, and almost equally distributed among women and men.  From the data we could find, it also seemed that these were more senior level associates, with more than 3 or 4 years of experience.  
The moral of this story?  If you're a mid to senior level associate in transactional practice groups, it may be time to start updating the resume.

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Posted by Greg Lambert at 8:32 PM
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1 comments:

Amy Derby said...

This brought back the nostalgia -- ok, more like flashbacks. I was a paralegal there and left in 2004. That was before the latest merger. I miss the people, but not the big firm pressure and politics.

February 17, 2009 4:41 PM

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