When the dust clears, February 2009 may go down in legal history as the month when more lawyers and legal staffers lost their jobs than at any time before. (See roundup by The American Lawyer here.)
More law firms are beginning to understand the reputation issues involved in making these awful annoucements -- and one major firm even jumped the gun by going public and saying something to the effect that "by the end of today we will be terminating X amount of attorneys and staff." As much as I advocate for getting the bad news out early, it struck me as insensitive and wondered what people in that firm had to be thinking sitting at their desk that morning and wondering if they would get a pink slip.
It's always best to talk internally first about any difficult issue before going to the media. But the Internet and certain legal blogs have changed the rules of the game. Memos from the Executive Committee announcing layoffs are constantly showing up on influential legal blogs, often before everyone in the firm has opened their electronic mailboxes.
It's better for law firms to be more accessible about the state of their respective economies, if only because if they are not, the media will usually find out and then take control of the story. And that can often bring additional harm to a law firm's reputation.
Timing a layoff announcement is tricky...hold off and you run the strong risk of it getting leaked and the firm losing control of the message and the story. Put it out early or on a certain day...and the firm might be the only firm with a layoff announcement that day, thereby making it a larger story instead of being included in a "roundup" piece that includes many other firms with similar announcements.
Either way, firms must be able to clearly explain why the layoffs were necessary, be sensitive in every way to the hurt feelings of those let go, and reassure clients that the firm remains strong for the future.
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