ATL has been full of reports about Biglaw firms cutting draws, salaries, and furloughs. There have also been and will continue to be layoffs, whether they’re called “stealth layoffs” or some other furtive term. A layoff is a layoff is a layoff; there is no other way to put lipstick on this pig.
I was laid off some years back. It’s never a pleasant experience, and even now, years later, I wonder what was the true story behind my departure. Take it from me, you are in shock because you can’t figure out what happened. Did you not bill enough hours? Did your client development efforts suck? Did you piss off a major client? Were you an employee that took up a lot of HR-related time with your various issues? Was this an opportune time to get rid of an employee who had performance-related issues that no one really wanted to confront? Were you a conduit or a lawyer? Some managers only want conduits, micromanaging lawyers to the nth degree. Order takers and fact finders, but not lawyers.
Rahm Emanuel, who was President Barack Obama’s first chief of staff and, later, mayor of Chicago famously said, “[N]ever let a serious crisis go to waste.” That crisis gives you an opportunity to do things you didn’t think that you could do before.
As an employer’s in-house employment lawyer, I always felt it was better for both the employer and the employee if separation, e.g. layoffs, could be done in a gracious, graceful, and dignified manner, instead of the “you’re outta here” that some employers seem to prefer. One Biglaw firm thinks my way is the right way to treat departing employees. Right now, the layoffs are support staff onl,y but with the world in such flux, I think that at some time, not just Ropes & Gray but other Biglaw firms will be forced to go the layoff route for lawyers. Hopefully, other firms will adopt that model and provide severance to attorneys and continuation of benefits for some prescribed period. That concern for your colleagues goes a long way and helps to cushion the financial and ego blows.
For those of you who haven’t been laid off … yet, but are feeling the effects of death by a thousand salary cuts, it’s hard going now especially when law firms aren’t reducing billable hour requirements in light of all that is going on. Does anyone even care what is going on in attorney and staff personal lives right now? Don’t bother to answer; it is a rhetorical question.
Will kids be asking their lawyer parents how many hours they billed during the pendency of the crisis? I think not. Yes, we all understand that our profession is now a business and is being treated as such, more’s the pity. Do we lack the empathy gene?
So, those of you who have been laid off, stealthily or otherwise, or have seen your salaries chopped, please don’t be embarrassed or ashamed or afraid to talk about what has happened. Don’t skulk in the closet. Today, that closet would be very full of others similarly situated if it weren’t for social distancing.
About a decade ago, a friend lost her highly visible job. She slinked around, wouldn’t leave her house for several years because she thought everyone would be talking about her. If we know anything about our colleagues, it’s that they are extremely self-absorbed, so the idea that her job loss would be on anyone’s radar was laughable, and I said so. I also said that in 2010, when she lost her job and the economy was in the toilet, being laid off was essentially a badge of honor as it happened to just about everyone in one way or another, and there was nothing to be embarrassed about. The same holds true today perhaps, even more so. If the 21st century has taught us anything, it’s that layoffs are part of the economic landscape, and that you must take care of yourself first. This is not your fault. Remember that.
It’s okay to wallow for a little while. Layoffs, furloughs, and salary reductions are enormous blows to the ego, and the likelihood of finding similar employment right away isn’t great, given the number of legal jobs lost last month. Right now might be a good time to get up to speed on practice areas such as bankruptcy/restructuring or the myriad of employment issues arising from the impact of COVID-19, areas where there will be massive needs and in which you may be interested.
This time it is not going to be like Y2K where attorneys ran around saying the sky was going to fall on January 1, 2000, (only dinosaurs may remember) and it turned out the sky did not fall. Doom did not arrive. Chicken Little survived. There was no cascade of legal work.
I think there will be a lot of work for lawyers (not M&A and not litigation until the courts laboriously unwind the knots they are now in.) You won’t have to be in Biglaw to partake of what will be out there. Figure out what you want to do next and get prepared. I think that if you exhibit knowledge and skills that will be needed, you will eventually find a place for yourself. Network (I still hate that word) but reach out to your weak ties, not your strong ones. While it sounds counterintuitive, it’s those weak ties that may lead to your next gig.
Your next gig may not be what you dreamed of, but right now dreams take a back seat to the reality of the pandemic world. As everyone says, we are all in this together.
Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.