Boston skyline. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Goodwin Procter had not announced any layoffs. It has been updated to reflect that some professional staff were asked to leave the firm.

Several Boston-area legal giants have enacted cost cutting measures and altered existing firm programs in an effort to steel themselves to the economic fallout of COVID-19.

Am Law 100 firms Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo and Nixon Peabody have announced pay cuts to various attorneys and staff while Goodwin Procter has laid off some professional staff and decided to move its summer associate program to a five-week, remote format.

Ropes & Gray, the largest Boston-born firm by revenue, has yet to publicly announce any austerity measures.

In an email to the firm April 10, Mintz chairman Robert Bodian laid out the measures the firm will take over the next several months to control expenses at a time when many firms are anticipating a significant drop-off in business year over year.

The firm will be decreasing staff and paraprofessional salaries by 5% across the board (with an exception for those making less than $75,000 per year) and will be reducing associate salaries by 10%. Discretionary bonus payouts have been reduced by 50% for staff and taken off the table for associates. The firm is instituting a holdback on 40% of equity partner profits (it was previously 30%), and monthly payouts to equity partners will be reduced by 10%, with nonequity partner payouts reduced by 5%.

The contents of Bodian's email were first reported on Above The Law, and sources from the firm confirmed the details to ALM. The email also said the firm is not in a position now where it needs to furlough or lay off attorneys or staff.

Bodian said overall compensation at the firm will be down about 20%, with partners bearing the brunt of that amount. He also credited the firm's ability to prepay expenses over the last several years in anticipation of a "rainy day" that has clearly arrived.

"What we will do is try our best to make the best of the situation, to keep the ship sailing in the right direction, to avoid furloughs and layoffs, to monitor how we are being impacted and to restore us to normalcy (including compensation and the like) as soon as we can do so consistent with economic reality," Bodian said in the email.

Nixon Peabody, ranked No. 67 in the Am Law 100, took some of the most aggressive measures yet in attempting to square its financials. Effective April 6, the firm reportedly laid off 25% of its staff and 5% of its non-partner attorneys, while another 5% of non-partner lawyers are being furloughed for three months.

The furloughed attorneys are expected to keep their benefits, while those who were laid off will be receiving three months of health insurance coverage, according to Above The Law, which first reported the cuts.

Based on ALM data on Nixon Peabody's 2019 head count, that means 28 or 29 attorneys from the firm will be laid off.

In a stark contrast to some law firms, such as Boston-based Sullivan & Worcester, which made cuts and then publicly discussed the rationale behind those decisions, Nixon Peabody has not provided comment regarding its actions.

Nixon Peabody had a down year in 2019, with revenue declining 4.7% from 2018 to 2019. The firm said previously that it was not overly concerned about the drop, as it takes into consideration a $22 million payment in 2018 that would not be replicated moving forward, skewing the year-over-year numbers. The firm saw a dip in head count, going from 607 total attorneys in 2019 to 591 in 2019. And its equity partnership shrank from 131 to 121 attorneys.

Goodwin Procter, No. 26 in the 2019 Am Law rankings, is coming off a strong year that saw revenue increase by 11% from 2018 to 2019. The firm said in a statement April 10 that it recently reviewed the performance and size of its global operations team—its own term for professional staff.

"As a result of our analysis, we made the difficult decision to ask a limited number of our global operations team members to leave the firm. We are providing severance packages, based on tenure, to impacted employees," the firm said. It also noted that it will continue contributing to health care benefits for these employees through the end of September.

Additionally, Goodwin's summer associate program will now be conducted remotely and consist of five paid weeks instead of the usual 10. National hiring partner Emily Rapalino sent an email to the firm's summer associates April 8, outlining the changes in the program and highlighting that the associates will now get a firsthand look at how the firm is dealing with COVID-19 from a work process standpoint.

The program will now begin July 6 and will consist of the same training, presentations and informational sessions the firm normally does with its program, although now it will all be done remotely.

The largest of the Boston-founded firms, Ropes & Gray has seen revenue steadily climb over the past decade, achieving record revenues in 2018 to the tune of $1.748 billion. According to Above the Law, which cited an anonymous tipster, the firm has been sending communications related to the virus since January and has assured associates that it is in a financial position to deal with the crisis without resorting to furloughs, layoffs and pay cuts.

Ropes & Gray did not immediately respond to request for comment regarding updates around any cost-cutting measures.

For an up-to-date listing of what various firms are doing for austerity measures, please check ALM's firm listing here.

Read More

Pay Cuts, Layoffs, and More: How Law Firms Are Managing the Pandemic

Nixon Peabody Keeps Mum on Reported Lawyer and Staff Layoffs

Early Reports: The 2020 Am Law 100/200 Firm Financials