- The Layoff Tracker has been substantially revised again. We’re presenting more charts and raw data. While the icharts were cool with the sliders, it’s a little beyond our technical savvy. It’s all on zoho now. That will also allow us to do intraday updates more easily. On the down side, our design skills are highlighted by the puke green zoho uses for its graphics. That one is actually on their end; colors aren’t customizable yet.
- Categories have been changed again. If you notice posts that are out of place, let us know. We’re still sorting things out, so feel free to make suggestions. “Business of Law” is meant to encompass running both a firm and an inhouse department. “Lawyers” focuses on individual attorneys – for better or worse; it picks up “Behaving Badly,” “Jumping Ship,” and “On the Town.” Perp Walks, On the Town, etc. will become tags, where appropriate.
- The comment system has been switched over to Intense Debate. In addition to a number of features that supposedly make it easier to administer, it is designed to encourage participation by offering better threading and a number of other features.
- Please, let us know how we’re doing, send us tips, offer your design skillz, etc. We’ll have a contact form soon, but for now, just email us.
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you're doing great. maybe it's because i'm a corporate attorney, but I find your posts and insights a lot more interesting than ATL's. keep it up!
Thanks – that's kind of what we're going for. We're corporate, too. Let us know if there's something in particular you'd like to see.
The layoff tracker is great, but I wonder if dissolutions should be included anyway, despite being firm failures rather than just layoffs. It seems like it would give a truer picture of the market to include them.
thanks for the suggestion. the problem we're having is getting reasonably reliable numbers to put in the tracker. if you can think of a solution to that problem, we'd agree with you. but we can't figure out how to count a firm like heller that goes under, but groups of 50+ lawyers at a time join other firms.
Agreed, but it may be possible to find out the numbers of people actually terminated, rather than trying to sift out who left for another firm after the WARN notice versus those who were left behind. At least at Heller, numerous people were laid off on October 10th and October 17th, and I would think someone on the dissolution committee has those numbers. Not sure if the same situation existed for Thelen/Thatcher/Dreier or other firms that may have folded in this climate.
Fair points. If I can find the information, I'll write it up (or feel free to help me out and send it in!)
would it just be too complicated to separate the staff v. attorney layoffs? there's a difference – and for most of your audience, i'd wager that's a pretty important difference.
Yes, there's a difference, but not so much, in my opinion. We track both in the aggregate because the tracker is supposed to be a commentary more on the firms' practices than the effects on the attorneys (or staff). That being said, some of the spreadsheets do have that data in hidden columns, so this weekend I'll see if there's a decent way to present the data. Some of the layoffs don't distinguish, either, so that's another reason we report totals.