Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is laying off 65 staff across its offices, according to firm spokeswoman Sheila Turner. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog.
Turner says the layoffs affected staff only in Akin Gump’s U.S. offices and did not include lawyers. She says she was not provided with the breakdown of the number of layoffs in each office and that she did not know how many staff were let go in Washington. Turner says the news was announced at the firm today.
Firm chairman R. Bruce McLean was not in the office and was not immediately available to comment on the matter.
Legal Times published this story in August about the changes underway at Akin Gump. In an effort to put more emphasis on what McLean calls “high-value” work, firm leadership spent the first part of 2008 engineering a series of changes to Akin Gump’s practice areas. Some partners were asked to switch the focus of their practices or leave the firm, and several did.
I was one that was laid off in the LA office. It was done unfairly. Those in the "click" stayed eventhough they may not have had the same skill set and/or work ethic or tenure. Yes, AG has no regard for their employees.
Posted by: | January 29, 2009 at 02:12 PM
Managers and people in higher positions in the firm keep everything behind close doors and have no regard for staff.
Posted by: | January 21, 2009 at 04:38 PM