Legal News

Despite Mass Layoffs, Will Lawyers Party Like It?s 1999?

By Dan Slater

Eight-year partnership tracks. Lock-step salaries. Billable hour requirements.

The law firm has long been a place where certainty reigns, a counter-balanced, chameleon-like business that can roll with the ups and downs of the market, moving lawyers around (if need be) and providing them with a measure of job security. But this financial crisis has crushed the job market. So deep is the damage that even law firms are taking an unprecedented hit.

What else is changing in BigLaw? The way that lawyers party, perhaps. Given that White & Case held its 2007 holiday bash at the United Nations, tricked out with a band and a fireworks display, we called up the firm to see what plans it had in store for this year.

“We booked the event location at a midtown restaurant months ago,” said White & Case spokesman Nick Clarke. “It’ll obviously be scaled back — we’ll have fewer trappings — but we are going forward.” He said there will be no band or fireworks this year. “It’s going to be a more understated event.”

When we indicated to Clarke a comment by a Loyal Law Blog Reader pegging the bill for last year’s party at a million bucks, he checked the numbers for us. “In fact, we spent less than half that,” he said. This year, added Clarke, the firm is spending less than $250,000. That’s for between 700 and 1,000 people.

How does that strike you, LB Readers? In lean times, what types of parties should law firms be throwing?

Photo: iStockPhoto

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 12, 2008 (boomark / email).