Law Firm cost cutting

Click on the link above to read a piece at Above the Law, a self-proclaimed legal tabloid, about Chicago law firm Locke Lord Bissell mandating LoisLaw over Westlaw or Lexis for most online research. Entertainingly, they class it with Kirkland Ellis downsizing their breakfast perk or K & L Gates switching to bargain basement bathroom supplies and declining to cover members' bar dues. And you know things are bad when Debevois and Plimpton cancels the annual firm dinner at the fancy restaurant, and instead, offers drinks at the firm.

Still, it's better for the firms to look for ways to trim the perks than to trim off the associates, paralegals or (gasp!) even the librarians! For stunning graphs that summarize the bloodshed, go to Layoff Tracker at Lawshucks... Above the Law treats Black Thursday here. Then, Law Shucks begins their This week in Layoffs feature with 2/20/09, and now 2/27/09. They even have an archived The month in layoffs for January, 2009.

It's scary times for all of us in law.

A tip of the OOTJ hat to my invaluable colleague, Susan Sweetgall, who tipped me off to this entertaining blog, Above the Law.