Saying it needs to tackle a surge in bankruptcy and litigation work, Brown Rudnick is shelving deferred start dates for 11 first-year associates.
Under the plan, first reported by the Boston Business Journal, the firm will have the associates start on Sept. 14 instead of Nov. 30.
The original class included 27 first-years. Three will remain deferred until Nov. 30. Another dozen remain deferred until 2010. One more has taken a job in Singapore, said firm CEO Joe Ryan, who is also a senior partner in the firm's bankruptcy & finance practice group.
"The good news is since we made that decision [to defer] we've become very busy and it certainly looks like that's going to be sustained," Ryan said.
The firm's strong national practices in corporate restructuring and litigation are picking up, Ryan said. Much of the litigation work is related to corporate restructuring and bid protests for government contracts, he said.
The firm is still mulling when to bring in the dozen associates deferred until next year because 10 have taken public service jobs, Ryan said. "We want to make sure we time [their starting dates] in a way consistent with their current commitments and our needs," Ryan said.
Last November, the firm laid off 20 lawyers, three paralegals and 20 staffers in five of the firm's six U.S. offices and its London outpost.
