Recent layoffs at Dechert are the latest in a series of downsizing efforts by Big Law firms to fit staffing levels to demand, following workforce cuts at a range of other firms with premium practices, including Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigan and Kirkland & Ellis.
Like these other firms, Dechert appears to have been caught up in a boom-and-bust hiring cycle, with the private equity and finance ranks in particular swelling to meet rising demand and then leaving the firm with overcapacity concerns.
