Likelihood of Success

The Right Staff is Key

I have to excerpt almost this entire posting from Above the Law, because you have to read it to believe it.  This might just make a good comment at the blog, but unfortunately the comments section at ATL — which is still, in many respects, a remarkable thing, as David Lat himself will always be — is not a respectable place to be found.  So, check this out.

Back in November, Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney cut 15 to 25 staffers (though the firm declined to call them “layoffs”). Last week, it appears that the firm made additional cuts to its staff — and this time the firm is being clear about what is going on. Buchanan’s executive director Nolan Kurtz told Above the Law:

The firm eliminated about 25 to 30 administrative operations positions last week. Given the overall economic climate, we believe that it’s more important than ever to ensure that we have the right staffing in place firmwide.

The firm also announced the news directly to associates, on Friday. According to a tipster:

[Buchanan Ingersoll] announced Friday another round of cuts after several Harrisburg corp. and Philadelphia IP lawyers resigned…. Kurtz Buchanan told the [attorneys] that laying off staff was not because of the economy but good planning.

Will attorneys soon follow staffers into unemployment? Maybe. . .

Kurtz’s statement to ATL was far more diplomatic than our tipsters’ reports:

[W]e are also in the final stages of our annual attorney review period, which looks at work load, pro bono commitment, skill set and the overall needs of the firm. Much like any other firm or business, we continually review our personnel to ensure we have the best lawyers with the right skills and experience to deliver results for our clients.

We’ll let you know if the guillotine falls on Buchanan attorneys.

Good luck to former Buchanan Ingersoll staff.

No, really.  That is the entire journalistic commentary.  It could very well be that it has reached the point that ATL writers are utterly jaded, hopeless, and frazzled by the whole thing.

But I’m not.

Let’s take official statement number one:

The firm eliminated about 25 to 30 administrative operations positions last week. Given the overall economic climate, we believe that it’s more important than ever to ensure that we have the right staffing in place firmwide.

“The right staffing”?   Let’s get this straight:  In the previous economic climate, did Buchanan Ingersoll believe it needed to ensure that it had the “wrong staffing in place firmwide”?  Or only in certain cities?

Have you ever seen such a cynical, dishonest characterization of layoffs?  It’s not even “right-sizing” — which acknowledges, “We want to be the right size for now.  Last year’s right size is no longer right”  Rather, this is, “The right staffing needs be in place” — as if not only were this a qualitative change — no, a qualitative improvement! — but that the “staffing” of before… in other words, the staff, the people who worked on the staff, who supported their families by being Buchanan Ingersoll staff members — was, now that we can see clearly… WRONG.  It was the WRONG STAFF.  Ing.

Above the Law calls this “being clear about what is going on.”

That’s the first one.  Here’s the second one:

Much like any other firm or business, we continually review our personnel to ensure we have the best lawyers with the right skills and experience to deliver results for our clients.

ATL’s Elie Mystal describes this barrage of baloney as “diplomatic.”  Not “We have to tighten our belts and that means we can only hold onto our most productive and dependable performers,” or “We have to make changes to reflect reduced demand for our services,” it’s a need to “ensure” (again with the ensure!) “we have the best lawyers with the right skills and experience to deliver results for our clients.“

Buchanan Ingersoll didn’t ensure that until now?  Can its clients (and former clients?) get a refund now that it’s clear that they paid full-boat bills even though the firm had the worst lawyers with the wrong skills and inexperience, blah, blah, blah?

In fact, there’s not only a lack of recognition in this statement that the economics of 2009 are different from what preceded them in the previous ten years at Buchanan Ingersoll.  This second statement don’t even acknowledge that there’s a change in the overall world or national economy or… or anything!  Just reviewing… ensuring… and delivering!

ATL’s description of this torrent of trash talk?  “Diplomatic”!

I’ve heard of taking care of your sources, but, wow.

Is it just me, or is sincerity dead?  Or just Buchanan Ingersoll… and a once hard-hitting blog that hit big law firms and their owners where they lived?