Law360 is providing free access to its coronavirus coverage to make sure all members of the legal community have accurate information in this time of uncertainty and change. Use the form below to sign up for any of our weekly newsletters. Signing up for any of our section newsletters will opt you in to the weekly Coronavirus briefing.
Sign up for our Florida newsletter
You must correct or enter the following before you can sign up:
Thank You!
Law360 (April 15, 2020, 9:20 PM EDT ) Florida-based Greenspoon Marder LLP is the latest firm to lay off staff and attorneys and implement pay cuts in the face of reduced revenue projections because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The firm's managing partners confirmed Wednesday that they had let go of 40 staff members and five lawyers and reduced salaries as part of cost-cutting measures meant to offset an anticipated slowdown in business.
"These actions are not only consistent with what most professional service firms are doing, but all businesses around the globe," managing partners Gerry Greenspoon and Michael Marder said in a joint statement. "It is our sincere and honest hope that many of these reductions will be temporary."
They said that so far, the firm — which has more than 240 attorneys in 26 locations around the country — has been able to "adapt and remain productive and responsive to our clients during these very difficult and challenging times, while also maintaining all appropriate safety measures."
Greenspoon Marder is far from the only law firm to take cost-cutting measures during this crisis. On Tuesday, Philadelphia-based Ballard Spahr LLP said it would be cutting pay for nonpartner attorneys and staff making more than $75,000 per year and reducing partner draws in response to the economic toll of the pandemic. The measures were implemented to stave off potential layoffs, according to firm Chairman Mark Stewart.
Baker McKenzie is also reducing salaries for attorneys including nonequity partners, other timekeepers and business professionals, and Kirkpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP said it was reducing partner draws by an average of 10% and cutting pay for salaried attorneys and staff by 5%.
Last week, a number of large law firms including DLA Piper, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP, Blank Rome LLP, Winston & Strawn LLP and others all said they would be taking various cost-cutting measures, including furloughs, pay cuts and deferments of partner pay distributions, to weather the coming economic downturn.
--Additional reporting by Aebra Coe and Matt Fair. Editing by Janice Carter Brown.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
