MULTIMEDIA

Many in the legal profession are calling March 9th of this year "Bloody Monday." On that day, 737 people lost their jobs at major U.S. law firms - making it the single worst day for legal layoffs so far this recession, according to the tracking Web site Lawshucks. Since January law firms have laid off more than 7,000 people. Charlotte has been hit hard because of its close ties to banking.

Until about eight months ago, Jeff Steiner says he'd never met a laid-off lawyer.

"I mean, never even heard of it," says Steiner. "I don't know that there was such a thing."

That is, until he became one. Steiner and his friend Sam Smith were among the earliest legal industry layoffs back in August at a Charlotte firm called Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft. They worked in capital markets, which is precisely the kind of legal work that dried up as the financial system imploded.

Since then, nearly a hundred of the nation's highest-grossing law firms have laid people off.

"I mean, the sheer numbers are shocking," says Steiner. "And the names. You're talking about law firms that have been institutions in this country for years and years and years."

And now? Smith and Steiner say they have lots of company. Very few of their lawyer friends still have jobs.

At a Charlotte coffee shop they commiserate about how neither has had even a serious nibble on his resume. It seems firms are simply not hiring, here, or anywhere. And this is the last thing Sam Smith says he bargained for when he moved his wife and two kids to Charlotte barely two years ago.

"Most lawyers that were initially laid off were more junior level - people two, three years out of law school," says Smith. "So they've definitely got a lot of loans they're carrying."

"The loans are one thing," adds Steiner. "You know mortgages, car payments. . . "

"I think it's just natural tendency to go out and start spending your money," says Smith. "And no one expects to be laid off the next month and not be able to pay off all of this stuff."

With so many people in his network now out of work, Steiner says he has to dig deep – calling on distant acquaintances and friends of friends in search of job leads.

Smith has put his search on the backburner to start a new website he hopes will earn him some cash. He says the internet is the closest thing lawyers have to a support group right now.

"There's a lot of gossip in the legal industry," says Smith. "It's a very small world. And there's this watercooler talk that goes on at law firms. Associates will pop into their colleagues' office and talk about the partner that just yelled at them."

Now lawyers can vent on Smith's website. And they are. He says RateAPartner.com crashed twice under the crush of visitors the day it launched.

Other legal news sites have seen a similar surge. A cheeky mix of gossip and insider tips about layoffs, has made AboveTheLaw.com into a must-read. Editor-in-Chief Elie Mystal says lawyers are freaking out, because they always thought their firms were resistant to recession.

"You know there's a reason why some of these people went to law school as opposed to business school or what have you," says Mystal. "And one of those reasons was job security. Given the expectation that layoffs were a rare thing that happened to only a few particularly terrible attorneys, that'll give you whiplash."

Mystal says law firms that specialize in bankruptcy or litigation seem to be faring better than others. Those with a lot of banks on their client roster are hurting most. . . which means. . ."it's terrible in Charlotte."

"I mean there's just no other way of putting it," says Mystal. "I'm at the point where I just try to make jokes about it because it's so beyond the pale of what we've seen in other cities. There are a couple of firms that have just straight up closed their Charlotte offices. So it's not pretty."

It's hard to know exactly how many lawyers have lost their jobs in Charlotte since many firms have done the layoffs quietly or announced them only as part of a nationwide reduction. The head of the North Carolina Bar Association is taking a pragmatic view.

"What we're going through is sort of like a forest fire and it's going to burn out the underbrush," says Allan Head, executive director of the NC Bar Association. "The forest will re-grow. This is just natural, if you will."

Head says so many of the state's 20,000 attorneys are struggling that - for the first time ever - the bar association is offering career services.

"We counsel people on alternative careers," explains Head. "How to start a niche practice or a solo practice. We've really not spent a lot of time and effort on career services because there really wasn't a need."

And consider this: For every lawyer laid off, another one – if not two – secretaries and paralegals have been cut. Their job prospects are just as bleak, but their severance packages are nothing compared to the lawyers they supported.

I wonder what advice the still employed lawyers would have for current law students. My son is in law school and I am not sure how to advise him. These are tough economic times and no one is immune.

Gotta disagree with NClawyer. Many of the NY firms moved to Charlotte so that BOA and Wach had a local presence, not for greed purposes. The local firms were not able to sustain the intense workload of the banks (in many cases) and the banks have to diversify their outside counsel for compliance purposes, so the firms moved down for the business and so that their main clients had people that they could meet in person, etc. Also, I think it's fair to say that the market is terrible in Charlotte. For the past 15 or so years, the banks have been the driving force of the market and with the uncertainty surrounding what will come of the merger and the takeover, these businesses have halted. That, not only leaves several lawyers out of work, but it also prevents firms that had even a small part of this business to lose money and as a result not look to hire, when they can just reallocate what they have. Also, many out of work lawyers in Charlotte, just leave the area because there's nothing here. It seems pretty terrible to me and certainly at least as bad as the rest of the country if not worse.

I'm the WFAE reporter who did this story. You all make excellent points. I would love to speak with any of you at greater length as I continue to follow this story. Please contact me at jrose@wfae.org.

What does a lawyer do when he loses his job? Starts a gossipy web site to cash in on his fellow lawyers. Nice!

haha, no sympathy for laid off lawyers. do you realize that nobody likes lawyers, guys?

I agree wholeheartedly with sinks and NClawyer. The Charlotte legal market has likely had fewer layoffs overall than many comparably sized cities. For the lawyers affected, it sucks tremendously and I feel for them. However, Dewey closing its 8 person office, Sonnensine (sp?) its 11 person office (both of which existed solely to do the mortgage backed securities work that helped the economy collapse) -- even when coupled with the 20 or so layoffs at Moore & Van Allen, the few at Parker Poe and the Calwalader layoffs -- hardly renders the Charlotte market "terrible" for lawyers. There are still 4,000+ of us practicing in Mecklenburg County. [I also agree that Alan Head's comments came off as insensitive, however, I would venture that he was referring more to the carpetbagger firms and their sketchy practices areas as the "brush" than the lawyers who lost their jobs].

Complete agree with those above. Carpetbagging finance firms closing up small offices is really not illustrative of the Charlotte legal market as a whole. MVA, ParkerPoe have had minor layoffs, but nothing at all like what has been seen in other cities. If you want to work at an otherwise ailing NY or Chicago based firm, then you are in trouble. But the established players in the Charlotte legal market seem to still be going relatively strong. They just might not be hiring the refugees from the otherwise ailing NY or Chicago based firms that have disappeared.

I think the article was rather short sighted actually. The "firms" that have closed in Charlotte are primarily back offices of firms from NY and other large cities that came to Charlotte primarily to take advantage of the greed of the last ten years. When the bubble burst, they closed up faster than an irritated oyster. But no pearls from these folks. Why didn't anyone interview lawyers from the older, established local firms (RBH, Parker Poe, the former Kennedy Covington)?? This was just an article about carpetbagger firms.

The Mecklenburg County Bar is conducting a Continuing Ed program on recession issues on April 17. It should be helpful for attorneys who have been pushed out by these hard times. Details at www.meckbar.org

Jeff and Sam both sound like very level-headed and determined individuals. It is shocking that the job market has deteriorated to a point where two attorneys with resumes attractive enough to previously secure employment with Cadwalader cannot find work. If I were in charge of legal hiring, I would seize this time as an opportunity to pick from this growing pool of talentented individuals seeking employment.

Rate A Partner is the best idea. They need to add more North Carolina partners.

I can confirm that many attorneys previously held the belief that law was a fairly recession-proof profession. You were not going to get uber-rich, but you would not go without work. Sadly, this misconception has been corrected. As one of the lucky attorneys that still is employed, I truly feel for all of my colleagues that have been laid off as a casualties of the financial crisis. It is great that Jeff and Sam are willing and able to be vocal spokespeople for the cadre of attorneys let go in Charlotte. Like the commentators above, I too would love to hear about their progress in obtaining new employment.

Head's comments are insensitive and inaccurate and he should be ashamed of equating this economic crisis with a forest fire. I know several NC lawyers that have been laid off and they are excellent, intelligent, hard-working attorneys and certainly not "brush." These are non-performance layoffs in most cases based on lack of work and seniority. Entire firms have closed. Entire practice areas have shut down. Is that burning out the "underbrush?" It is just shocking that Head, the head of the NC Bar, could say something like that and turn a blind-eye to the severity and the reality of the situation in North Carolina and the rest of the country. Really disappointing.

Absolutely, thanks for the article and to Jeff and Sam for speaking truth and making sense. I would also be interested to follow Jeff and Sam in their efforts. Also, hearing a little more about the profession would be great (how folks managed to survive the downturn in the legal profession in the early 90s and again 5-6 years ago).

This is a great article on what the job prospects are really like for Charlotte lawyers. What about a piece connecting some of the out-of-work lawyers with some local resources that may be able to help their job search? Or having Steiner and Smith on again with someone form the NC Bar association to discuss their new career services options?