Author: TSA Press

Maybe The Partnership Should Stop Eating Avocado Toast: Furloughs, layoffs, and salary cuts continue at Blank Rome, Clark Hill, Downey Brand, Bremer, Venable, and Nixon Peabody.

It’s PIT-PAT!: Even if you don’t get that reference, enjoy Jones Day’s ludicrous new video (and if you do get that reference, you’ll really enjoy it).

What’s That Diploma Worth?: Students flesh out what they think a diploma-privileged licensure would look like and it’s… pretty good.

Define “Our”: In truly Orwellian fashion, “our” ventilator stockpile was reimagined.

With states running with a patchwork of self-quarantine orders, some wonder when the White House will order a national quarantine. Those folks shouldn’t hold their breath (and not just because the 10-second thing is a myth). What Supreme Court ruling first laid out the hard line between state and federal powers to issue quarantines?

Hint: For a Chief Justice with little patience for the states, he took a hard line on this one.

See the answer on the next page.

The concerning financial consequences of the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in layoffs, furloughs, and salary adjustments across all avenues of employment, but when it comes to the legal sector, the cuts have been deep. Dozens of firms have tightened their belts to prepare for the loss of cash this will cause them, and legal professionals ranging from staff members to equity partners have been squeezed.

We’ve been tracking exactly how this is playing out, and now we’ve got news on adverse employment action from a midsize firm with offices throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado that are “open, fully staffed, and providing legal services.” Well, from what we’ve been told, that “fully staffed” part might not be true anymore thanks to firmwide layoffs.

Sources tell us that Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara reportedly conducted a “massive” wave of attorney and staff furloughs and layoffs thanks to the COVID-19 outbreak. Here’s what numerous sources have told us:

* Bremer Whyte trimmed half of their staff citing concerns over coronavirus!

* Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara wasted no time in laying off/terminating 25 percent of the firm’s 170 attorneys. The guillotine fell on March 19th. Some entire departments were eliminated. Massive layoff of support staff as well. Morale was low to begin with, but is horrible now.

* Bremer Whyte laid off over 50 of its staff, including 30 attorneys.

We reached out to Bremer Whyte for comment, and a firm spokesperson let us know that these descriptions of what happened were inaccurate. Instead, approximately 15 percent of the firm’s attorneys were either furloughed or let go, while approximately 20 percent of our staff has been temporarily furloughed. No departments were eliminated. Here’s a statement from the firm:

All the employees that were laid off were paid beyond the date of their last day of employment. More than half of the employees that were the subject of this difficult decision continue to receive their benefits through the firm. Each of the equity partners are foregoing compensation during this difficult time. It was a difficult decision the firm made but we are optimistic that we will be in a position to bring many of our valued employees back when this crisis ends.

Best of luck to those affected at Bremer Whyte. We hope you’ll be able to find security and support in the legal industry and beyond during these tough times.

If your firm or organization is slashing salaries, closing its doors, or reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Our vast network of tipsters is part of what makes Above the Law thrive. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477).

If you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Layoff Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the layoff alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each layoff, salary cut, or furlough announcement that we publish.

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Are you ready for the next bit of COVID austerity news? Yes, these stories are coming fast and furious, but in the rapidly changing environment that’s necessary to get a full picture of what’s really happening out there in Biglaw.

All employees at Venable received an email this afternoon from chairman Stuart Ingis, laying out the “Proactive Financial Measures to Respond to Disruption Caused by the Coronavirus.” The email laid out the steps that the firm is taking to tighten their belts during this tumultuous time. That includes a sliding scale of pay cuts across the firm– those making over $190,000 will see a 20 percent decrease, and those under $60,000 will see 0– as well a furloughing some staff members that primarily support the firm’s physical locations.

Here’re the details:

The firm will:

Reduce Compensation for Lawyers and Staff.  The firm will implement the following salary reductions based on compensation level, with greater reductions associated with higher compensation:

Salary Level	Percent Reduction
Above $400,000	20% on all compensation plus 10% of compensation above $400,000
$190,000-$400,000	20%
$120,000-$189,999	15%
$75,000-$119,999	10%
$60,000-$74,999	5%
$59,999 and below	No Reduction

For lawyers and exempt professional staff, those staff on a fixed salary, these reductions are effective beginning tomorrow, April 4, and will be reflected in full in the April 17 payroll payment.  For non-exempt professional staff, those staff that are paid on an hourly basis, the reductions are effective beginning one week from tomorrow, April 11, and will be reflected in full in the May 1 payroll payment.  The firm has previously communicated to equity partners actions that affect their compensation in similar ways.

Furlough Certain Professional Staff.  We will furlough certain professional staff, primarily those involved in positions that support facilities and in-person operations when our offices are fully open, until Friday May 29, 2020.  The firm will pay for medical and dental benefits for furloughed individuals during this period and they will be eligible to apply for the expanded unemployment benefits enacted last week by Congress.  We also have prepared materials to assist those that are furloughed and will have staff and lawyers available to help with applying for benefits available during the furlough period.

We will be regularly assessing events and will update these decisions and our firm’s response as appropriate.  Thank you for your understanding and your ongoing commitment to Venable.  We have and will continue to have a great firm.

When reached for comment, the firm had the following statement:

“Venable entered this period of economic and societal disruption caused by COVID-19 with a solid start to the year that continued through the first quarter. The diversity of our practices, the quality of our attorneys and professionals, and our relationships with our clients are very strong.

Because the extent and duration of the disruption and its impact remains uncertain, we have taken steps to tailor staffing needs to the current environment and prudently prepare the firm for the future. Our actions include postponing certain distributions to equity partners, implementing tiered compensation reductions for attorneys and staff, and temporary furloughing certain staff in roles that primarily support office operations.”

Hopefully this will prove the only cost-cutting measures the firm needs to take and everyone really is back at work, as the firm anticipates, by May 29th. Fingers crossed on that one.

If your firm or organization is slashing salaries, closing its doors, or reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Our vast network of tipsters is part of what makes Above the Law thrive. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477).

If you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Layoff Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the layoff alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each layoff, salary cut, or furlough announcement that we publish.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

“The notion of the federal stockpile was, it’s supposed to be our stockpile,” the nation’s First Son-in-Law lectured America’s governors from the White House podium yesterday. “It’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.”

That Jared Kushner is a regular polymath, equally conversant on topics as diverse as federalism, the opioid crisis, the Middle East peace process, and emergency management. Which is to say, he’s willing to hold forth at length on a multitude of sh*t he knows nothing about. And the nation’s emergency reserve supply chain is no exception.

As Law & Crime’s Aaron Keller notes, the government’s emergency stash of supplies isn’t the “federal stockpile” at all. It’s the Strategic National Stockpile, as described in 42 U.S. Code §247d–6b, and it belongs to the entire country.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services is responsible for maintaining a supply of “drugs, vaccines and other biological products, medical devices, and other supplies” sufficient to “provide for and optimize the emergency health security of the United States, including the emergency health security of children and other vulnerable populations, in the event of a bioterrorist attack or other public health emergency.” In case of such an emergency — say, for instance, a viral pandemic that crashes the American healthcare system — the Secretary shall “in consultation with Federal, State, and local officials, take into consideration the timing and location of special events, and the availability, deployment, dispensing, and administration of countermeasures.”

So, it’s not “our stockpile,” as the MBA Princeling so ineptly put it. It’s OUR STOCKPILE. It exists for the express purpose of being dispensed to the states in a national emergency. And up until this morning, the website for the Strategic National Reserve said exactly that. Here’s the landing page language from 9am:

Strategic National Stockpile is the nation’s largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.

When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency. Organized for scalable response to a variety of public health threats, this repository contains enough supplies to respond to multiple large-scale emergencies simultaneously.

And here’s how it reads now:

The Strategic National Stockpile’s role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available.

Receipts courtesy of CNN’s indefatigable Daniel Dale:

The new arglebargle about supplementing the states and use as a “short-term stopgap buffer” may be consistent with Trump’s protests that the federal government doesn’t want to be a “shipping clerk” for the states. But it’s not remotely consistent with actual federal law. Because congress is often dysfunctional, but no one in their right mind would force the states to bid against each other, driving up the price of supplies during a national emergency.

But, as is so often the case in the Trump administration, reality and law must give way to fantasy and dogma. So the website gets memory-holed, and the states compete against each other to see whose citizens get ventilators that will keep them alive.

Jared, you’re doin’ a heckuva a job.

Jared Kushner Bungled the Law Which Requires an Emergency Stockpile of Medical Supplies [Law & Crime]
HHS Website Changes Strategic National Stockpile Definition, Now Fits Kushner’s Legally Dubious Description [Law & Crime]

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

The hits just keep on coming.

If you thought being perennially in the Am Law 100 rankings would somehow shield a Biglaw firm from having to make tough cuts during economic hard times, well, the coronavirus is here to laugh at your hubris. Here at Above the Law, we’ve been inundated with reports of firms making tough cost-cutting measures in order to weather the economic downturn, and it’s clear even large national firms are feeling the pinch.

The latest Biglaw firm to make cuts in Nixon Peabody. Though the firm hasn’t lowered the boom on attorneys (so far), an astonishing ~25 percent of staff members have been furloughed. The furlough becomes effective on April 6th and will remain in place “until further notice.”

If your firm or organization is slashing salaries, closing its doors, or reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Our vast network of tipsters is part of what makes Above the Law thrive. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477).

If you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Layoff Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the layoff alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each layoff, salary cut, or furlough announcement that we publish.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

It seems like these days our news feeds are only filled with stories of COVID-19 diagnosis, deaths and maybe even some recoveries. Every click, every channel, maybe even thought, surrounds this pandemic, which has all individuals, not just officials and health care workers,  fixated.

Other newsworthy events must be occurring, although none seem to be capturing our attention, or fear, as much as COVID-19. But there are other tragedies and there are other deaths. One need not be a trusts and estates attorney to learn that individuals are still dying, for a host of reasons. In reaction, people are attempting to mourn in uncertain and unusual circumstances. Given the current state of the world, recent decedents may not have public funerals. They may not be properly eulogized and their survivors may not be able to practice traditional mourning period.

As is the case with all legal proceedings, probate and estate cases have slowed as our communities and courts react to the current situation, regardless of whether COVID-19 directly or indirectly was the impetus for death. Perhaps this halt in life and court proceedings is felt the deepest by the decedents’ survivors, especially the survivors of those who have passed away as a result of a crime. It is these decedents whose deaths affect not only their immediate family, but the greater community and civilization at large.

On Sunday, amidst the litany of COVID-19 deaths  Rabbi Josef Neumann, of Rockland County, New York, died, at the age of 72. Neumann was a victim of the December 28, 2019, attack on a Chanukah party held at another rabbi’s Monsey, New York, home. Allegedly, Grafton Thomas attached six individuals with an 18-inch machete at the holiday gathering. Neumann was stabbed in his skull, which damaged his brain and left him in a coma for almost two months. He underwent several operations before his death.

Thomas was charged with five counts of attempted murder and federal hate crimes.

Now that Neumann has passed away, Thomas could face an upgraded murder charge. The Rockland County district attorney’s office plans to present evidence for a charge of second-degree murder, although the hearing is currently unscheduled because of COVID-19.

Thomas pleaded not guilty to the 14-count charge brought against him by the Rockland County district attorney’s office. Additionally because of the nature of the crime, there is also a 10-count federal indictment charging him with injuring five victims while trying to kill them because of their religion. It also charges that he obstructed the free exercise of religion in his attempt to kill the individuals. He pleaded not guilty to the federal charges as well.

It has been reported that Thomas had anti-Semitic  books and that he also internet-surfed for potential targets prior to the incident. His defense attorney has argued that he suffers from a history of psychosis. A defense-hired psychiatrist has supposedly found Thomas incompetent to stand trial. Two prosecution experts disagree and have found him competent. A judge has not yet ruled on this issue.

While the courts are essentially at a standstill, it seems that the New York State legislature is trying to recognize Neumann and the significance of his tragic death. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed legislation equating hate crimes with domestic terrorism. The law will be called the Josef Neumann Hate Crimes Domestic Terrorism Act, and it will be voted on by the legislature this week, as part of the budget.

During this time of uncertainly, it feels like the wheels of justice are moving incredibly slowly, if at all. Moreover the limitations that we are undertaking to protect our families and communities makes processing tragedies like the Chanukah party attack and Neumann’s death all the more difficult. When we emerge from the current COVID-19 crisis, issues like hate crime will remain. We owe it to ourselves and to our communities to follow the example of Cuomo and New York State in proactively remembering all people in need during this unsettling time and memorializing in some way the impact of their loss, not just on our families but the community as a whole.

Cori A. Robinson is a solo practitioner having founded Cori A. Robinson PLLC, a New York and New Jersey law firm, in 2017. For more than a decade Cori has focused her law practice on trusts and estates and elder law including estate and Medicaid planning, probate and administration, estate litigation, and guardianships. She can be reached at cori@robinsonestatelaw.com.