Twitter, Amazon, Meta and many other tech companies are reducing staff. In our legal world, on the vendor side we had Reynen Court reportedly laying off 90% of its staff and now Relativity laying off 10% of its workforce (150 people). On the law firm side we had Kirkland & Ellis and Gunderson Dettmer trimming first and mid-level associates and Cooley laying off 150 people (78 lawyers and 72 paralegals/staff). With all that legal news and the hint that there is more to come, I thought this post by Sandra Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner on what companies get wrong about layoffs was appropriate. They write, "Traditionally, employers resort to layoffs during recessions to save money. Companies continue to cling to the idea that reducing staff will provide the best, fastest, or easiest solution to financial problems. I've studied layoffs since 2009. In 2018, I wrote an article for HBR that explored how the short-term cost savings provided by a layoff are overshadowed by bad publicity, loss of knowledge, weakened engagement, higher voluntary turnover, and lower innovation - all of which hurt profits in the long run." According to the authors the only thing different about today is 1) Word travels faster; 2) Corporate decision-making is under a microscope; and 3) The pandemic showed that companies have other options." How many of these mistakes is legal making? Read more at Harvard Business Review: What Companies Still Get Wrong About Layoffs
Published December 13, 2022.
