Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Announces Almost 150 Buyouts Across The Country

Associates are getting concerned about the firm's financial health.

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Arnold & Porter and Kaye Scholer combined their practices a little more than one year ago, and for those who were nervous about the merger from the get go, the chickens have officially come home to roost. The firm recently revamped its branding, such that it will only known as Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer on paper; the firm will be referred to Arnold & Porter everywhere else. That’s not the only big change the firm is planning to make.

When the merger was first announced, support staff were “nervous and uncertain about their futures”; after all, layoffs often come first for administrative personnel.

Please note the UPDATES below.

Yesterday afternoon, a kinder, gentler form of layoffs came for certain staff members at Arnold & Porter. The firm is offering voluntary buyouts for all of its legal secretaries in the country. UPDATE (02/07/18): The firm states that the buyout offer was made to 140 legal secretaries. Here’s the pertinent part of the memo that A&P sent to its associates — prior to alerting its legal secretaries about the buyouts — to notify them about the forthcoming staffing changes (and likely changes to their work routines):

[W]e are announcing today a voluntary buyout for legal secretaries, the parameters of which follow:

• The buyout is open to U.S. Legal Secretaries, but not to Legal Resource Assistants or Patent Legal Secretaries.
• Legal Secretaries will have until March 26th to accept the terms of the resignation program. Anyone who accepts the resignation program will leave the Firm on April 6th.
• A generous severance and outplacement package will be offered to any Legal Secretary who chooses to take this offer.

In developing this program, we are confident that we will be able to continue to meet the needs of our clients and our attorneys. It is important to emphasize to all that this is not a layoff but rather is driven by the manner which we and our competitors are delivering secretarial services.

One of our sources at A&P is concerned about the financial health of the firm: “Given the emphasis on ‘integration’ after the merger, announcements like this, combined with the ‘rebranding’ that took place recently, are leaving associates to wonder what’s happening/going to happen behind the scenes with management. I wouldn’t say associates are concerned for their own jobs (yet), but I do think it’s safe to say associates are concerned about the overall direction of the firm.”

This leaves us wondering what will happen to Arnold & Porter’s legal secretaries if not enough of them choose to accept the firm’s buyout offer by March 26. We have a feeling that the next mass email may be about secretarial layoffs.

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We wish all of the legal professionals at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer who accept the buyout the best of luck should they seek new job opportunities in the legal industry.

UPDATE (1:45 p.m.): Richard Alexander, the chairman of Arnold & Porter, sent this firmwide email in response to Above the Law’s reporting on the buyout program:

If your firm or organization is 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; this is a subject we cover quite closely. Please email us or text us (646-820-8477) with any information you might have. Thank you.

(Flip to the next page to see the full secretarial buyout memo from Arnold & Porter.)

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Earlier: Biglaw Firm Boots Merger Partner Off Its New Branding

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law 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.

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