Sabina Lippman Discusses Which Attorneys are on the Chopping Block with Law360
Co-Founder Sabina Lippman discussed which attorneys are most at risk of losing their jobs in the Law360 article, “The Attorneys Who Should Be Worrying About Pink Slips.” Though some attorneys are safe in this economy, BigLaw associates, capital market attorneys and litigation specialists are among those that are most at risk.
“In a bad market, the associate market always goes away,” Ms. Lippman says. In this market, sustaining an associate pay scale in a large firm may prove difficult. “Whether this market can withstand those sorts of things and pay a midlevel associate [$250,000], that’s tough.”
Lawyers in capital markets or securities litigation have an especially difficult road ahead because they must be on preapproved lists to be eligible to receive work. “In a bad market, what we’ve seen in the past is that corporate has suffered. Capital markets is an area within corporate that can be very risky,” she claims.
Additionally, “People with certain kinds of practices that are episodic are being affected by the market – [attorneys that have an] episodic litigation practice with ups and downs [where the clients] are not repeat clients,” Ms. Lippman states.
Ultimately, it’s getting increasingly difficult to be a lawyer. Ms. Lippman says, “It used to be ‘Welcome back from Christmas.’ Now it’s ‘Well, I was in the office the whole time.’”