Law Firm Layoffs and Pay Cuts, Cue the Class Actions, 'Patient Zero' Lawyer Now Home: The Morning Minute
Here's the news you need to start your day.
March 31, 2020 at 06:00 AM
3 minute read
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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
CUTS - Law firm layoffs and compensation cuts are coming in fast amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the belt-tightening: Reed Smith is holding back partner pay; Womble is laying off employees and cutting compensation for lawyers and staff; Marshall Dennehey is halting retirement matching. "The dam is breaking on layoffs. Many more to come," tweeted law firm consultant Kent Zimmermann on Monday.
READY – Prominent plaintiffs firms are prepping lawsuits over COVID-19, with some class actions already filed involving membership dues at 24-Hour Fitness and room-and-board fees at Arizona State University. Amanda Bronstad reports that New York firms Milberg Phillips Grossman and Sanders Phillips Grossman have teamed up to create a Coronavirus Litigation Task Force, which involves about 30 attorneys.
PLANNING AHEAD – A number of big firms that boosted their bankruptcy and restructuring groups over the past two years are in a good spot because of their foresight, Samantha Stokes reports. Among them are McDermott; Gibson Dunn; Morgan Lewis; and Mayer Brown.
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EDITOR'S PICKS
Laying Off or Shutting Down? Here's What You Should Know From the NLRB General Counsel
Law Students With COVID-19 Urge Peers to Stay Home
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WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
ADDED - Clifford Chance has hired the global co-head of DLA Piper's investment funds practice to its office in New York. David Goldstein joined DLA in 2011 from White & Case, Hannah Roberts reports. In July, Clifford Chance boosted its New York office by hiring financial restructuring partner Michelle McGreal from Davis Polk.
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WHAT YOU SAID
"The decision to cancel the July bar exam is devastating and really detrimental to all of us—whether it's because we were relying on bar grant money for funding for the summer, or for prospective employment."
— Nicole Buckley, a third-year student at CUNY School of Law. She and some other 3Ls are pushing for a "diploma privilege" amid the pandemic, which would exempt law grads from the requirement of passing the bar exam to become admitted to practice.➤➤ Sign up here to receive the Morning Minute straight to your inbox.
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Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
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