O'Melveny & Myers announced Wednesday that it would lay off 90 lawyers, including associates and counsel, and 110 staffers.
The move by the Los Angeles-founded firm comes amid a major contraction of big law firms across the country. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe announced Tuesday that it was letting go of 100 lawyers and 200 members of its staff. Last week, Latham & Watkins announced that it would lay off about 12 percent of its associate workforce.
In a statement, O'Melveny & Myers Chairman A.B. Culvahouse said, "We are taking these steps today to adjust our staffing levels to current demands and those we anticipate going forward. While our litigation practice continues to be very active and robust, we are taking these actions largely to address the slowness in our transactions area."
For 2008, the firm reported a small decline in revenues and a more substantial drop in profits per partner. Gross revenues were $908 million, an almost 3 percent drop from the prior year, while profits per partner were down more than 7 percent to $1.5 million.
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This article first appeared on The Am Law Daily blog on AmericanLawyer.com.
