McDermott Will & Emery offices in Washington, D.C. March 13, 2019. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

McDermott Will & Emery is making cuts to its professional ranks, eliminating an undisclosed number of staff in response to the COVID-19 crisis and its economic fallout.

The website Above the Law reported that in addition to the staff job losses, the firm cut associate positions. But a source familiar with the moves said the firm has taken no "COVID-19-related actions" with regard to its associates, equity partners or income partners.

"As we continue to see, the global coronavirus crisis has led to significant economic fallout with broad implications across all sectors, including the legal profession. While our firm is well positioned to weather economic turbulence, we are also not immune to it," said a spokesperson for the firm. "Unfortunately, this meant making the difficult decision to part ways with some of our valued staff professionals and to furlough some others."

The firm added that it would be providing paid health care benefits to all affected, but did not elaborate on their duration.

Some of the eliminated positions were in marketing, according to one former employee.

Much like Goodwin Procter, another firm that recently let go of staff, the cuts come after McDermott posted outstanding financial results from 2019. The Chicago-based firm grew revenue by double digits for the second year in a row, and its $1.17 billion in earnings placed it 30th in the Am Law 100.

Several other firms, including Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and McGuireWoods, have used public comments to signal that staff positions there are not in danger, at least for now.

Additional reporting by Patrick Smith

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