Reports of staff layoffs at Kirkland & Ellis are another reminder of the quiet staff reductions happening all across Big Law, even when a significant portion of law firms are performing well.

“There are or will be many others,” said Amy Leafe McCormack, of recruitment firm McCormack Schreiber Legal Search in Chicago. In general, law firm staff layoffs are “much easier to fly under the radar. Some started with furloughs that became permanent, and so much time had passed since the furlough.”