IN BRIEF

Hogan & Hartson tries layoff variation: buyouts

Amid a week filled with layoff news, Hogan & Hartson was taking a different tack.

The Washington-based firm offered buyouts last week to about 240 of its legal secretaries and word processors. Staff and associate layoffs have become commonplace at law firms in the past six months, but Hogan & Hartson is among the first to encourage staffers to leave voluntarily.

“In the end, I think people are going to feel pretty good that the firm gave people a choice,” said Hogan & Hartson Chairman J. Warren Gorrell Jr.

The buyout offer has been extended to secretaries and word processors who have been with the firm for at least five years. Those who choose to accept the buyout will receive four weeks of pay, plus an additional week of pay for every year they spent with the firm.

Read more.

California lawyers doing indigent work get IOUs

California’s continuing $42 billion budget crisis has hit hundreds of private appellate lawyers who handle indigent criminal appeals in the state.

State Controller John Chiang recently began withholding an estimated $5 million in monthly claims submitted from court-appointed appellate counsel for compensation. The Controller’s Office will delay payment by at least 30 days on lawyers’ pay claims sent to it by the Administrative Office of the Courts after Jan. 29, according to a spokesman for the AOC.

It is not known exactly how many lawyers will be getting IOUs but there are 800 attorneys handling criminal appeals through various state projects across California.