(Photo: J. Albert Diaz)

Last week, Florida-based Greenspoon Marder let go of dozens of employees and several lawyers, and instituted staff payroll cuts firmwide in anticipation of revenue shortfalls.

Greenspoon confirmed Wednesday that the firm laid off five attorneys and 40 staff members, and cut staff salaries across the board, making it the first Florida-founded Am Law 200 firm to publicly acknowledge layoffs in response to the novel coronavirus.

Greenspoon co-founders Gerry Greenspoon and Michael Marder said in a statement that the cuts were preemptive measures taken to offset an expected loss of revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"There is no question that our firm, like every other firm in the country, will experience a loss of previously projected revenue as a result of this unmatched global business slowdown," said Marder and Greenspoon. "As a result, our firm has decided to implement various cost-cutting measures in order to preemptively parallel this unexpected impact upon revenue with currently anticipated costs and expenses. It is our sincere and honest hope that many of these reductions will be temporary."

The coronavirus has affected Greenspoon in more ways than just the financial impact: Firm partner and City of Miami mayor Francis Suarez tested positive for COVID-19 on March 13. Several days later, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez ordered that all the county's nonessential businesses be closed. Law firms are exempt, though most have switched entirely to remote work anyway.

In 2019, the firm saw a 7% increase in gross revenue, from $152.2 million to $163.3 million, according to preliminary ALM data. Revenue per lawyer saw an 8.7% increase, from $656,000 to $713,000. And profits per equity partner saw an incredible 28.9% increase, from $546,000 to $601,000, driven by the creation of a nonequity partner tier.

Read More

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