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Alston & Bird Lays Off 14 Associates, 38 Staff
Fulton County Daily Report
April 06, 2009
Alston & Bird laid off 14 associates and 38 staff Friday. The firm also has pushed back the start date for its fall associate class from September to January and reduced its summer program from 12 weeks to nine.
This is the second round of layoffs for Alston this year. In January, the firm laid off 24 staff and fewer than 10 associates. Alston's managing partner, Richard R. Hays, declined at that time to be more specific on the number of associates.
"This is a tough thing to do. These are talented lawyers who we would look forward to working with and developing, if we had the work," said Hays.
Hays said emphatically that the firm has not made so-called stealth layoffs since Janaury.
Associates affected by Friday's layoff are in transactional practices including real estate and finance, said Hays. "The financial and real estate markets have been hit the hardest by the recession and that is reflected in law firms," he said.
The cuts affect the firm's offices in Atlanta, Washington, Charlotte and New York, but Hays declined to say how many associates are being laid off in individual offices.
Alston is making an offer to the associates losing their jobs that allows them to maintain their connection with the firm, with the possibility of being rehired later. They can work either for a nonprofit legal organization or in-house for a firm client through December at a reduced salary, paid by the firm. If the economy revives and work picks up, said Hays, it will hire those associates back in January.
Associates who decline that offer will receive a standard three-month severance package including salary, benefits and outplacement services, said Hays. Laid-off staff are receiving a severance package including salary and benefits, he said.
Associates who take the firm up on the nonprofit option will receive salaries pegged to their seniority level. "It's more than the three months severance, but not substantially more," said Hays.
The associates that Alston laid off in January received a similar offer. Hays said that several have chosen to work for nonprofit law groups, but declined to specify what organizations they've signed on with or how many are participating in the arrangement.
The 68 first-years whose start date has been delayed until January are being offered a similar opportunity, said Hays. Alston will either pay them $10,000 to tide them over until January or they can opt for a one-year fellowship with a legal nonprofit at a $60,000 salary paid by the firm. First-years who opt for the nonprofit fellowship will start at Alston in the fall of 2010.
He added that the pro bono outplacement program has been a firmwide effort, where partners and staff have pooled contacts and ideas to establish positions for the Alston associates at legal aid and nonprofit law groups in Atlanta, New York and other cities where the firm has offices. The firm has put together a catalog of all the nonprofit options for the associates losing their jobs.
