TheLawyer.com is reporting that up to 50 attorneys at Clifford Chance have volunteered for redundancy, in addition to the 80 facing “compulsory redundancy.”
Issues of nomenclature aside, what would possess an attorney to volunteer for severance in this market? Particularly in London. We’ve been saying all along that attorneys should fight tooth and nail for all the severance assistance they can get - most importantly, getting to use the office, email, phone number, secretary and, most importantly, the partners’ contacts during the search.
Once the stigma of having been laid off, whether for purely economic reasons or the hypocritical performance-based stealth layoffs, the job search only becomes that much more difficult. It’s one thing to be the attorney in good standing who is justifiably concerned about her firm’s condition. It’s entirely another to have been judged expendable by a foundering firm.
(To be clear, we’re stridently opposed to firms that claim that any layoff in this market is based on anything other than the firm’s own economic issues – ratcheting up the arbitrary criteria for “good standing” is sleazy and selfish posturing that will only hurt the firm in the long run. We make no judgments about the quality of lawyers affected by the firms’ struggles and resulting decisions.)
Surely, all 50 lawyers volunteering at CC couldn’t have had other jobs lined up and are just claiming some “free” money – which, by the way, is a spectacular play for those lucky few fortunate enough to cash in. Good for you!
To the rest, though, why? Why not milk the firm for as many extra months as possible? In fact, it’s possibly a move that screws over your colleagues – the 50 volunteers aren’t reducing the 80 mandatory layoffs. So, presumably, each of the 50 who volunteered (the “you can’t fire me, I quit!” mentality) just opened the door for numbers 81 and up to be in scope.
What are we missing?
One more question: does this qualify for the layoff tracker?
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yes definitely qualifies for layoff tracker. put it in there – you guys have the best data.
yes definitely qualifies for layoff tracker. put it in there – you guys have the best data.