US firm McKee Nelson is laying off 13 associates in New York and four in Washington DC in response to the "unprecedented devastation" of the credit markets, reports the New York Law Journal.

In a statement on Monday (3 November), the firm stressed the layoffs, which will reduce its lawyer headcount to 174, were not performance-based.

"We have analyzed and created a projection of what we believe the structured finance business will look like over the next two years and what resources, capabilities and experience will be required to do that work," the firm said. "These layoffs are a necessary part of the firm's adjustment to this new reality."

Launched in 1999 as a law firm offshoot of accounting giant Ernst & Young, McKee Nelson has long focused primarily on tax and structured finance, with the latter speciality once accounting for 60% of the practice.

However, structured finance, which takes in the bundling of mortgages into tradeable securities, was decimated by the subprime crisis and McKee Nelson last winter began offering buy-outs to lawyers willing to quit the slowing practice.

Firm co-chair Reed Auerbach said 24 lawyers took buy-outs at that time and the firm has increased its focus on litigation. Last year the firm recruited a litigation team from King & Spalding.

Auerbach said structured finance now accounts for around 28% of the firm's revenue and focuses more on restructuring and repackaging mortgage-backed securities than their issuance.

Auerbach denied the possibility that the firm would now seek out a merger. "Everyone here came from a big firm," he said. "I think I would get lynched if I even proposed [a merger]."

The New York Law Journal is a US sister title of Legal Week.