The law firm of Archer & Greiner has issued pink slips to 14 attorneys and 27 staff members earlier this month, according to The New Jersey Law Journal. The layoffs were handed down on March 4 and the employees have until April 1 to vacate their desks.
The attorneys laid off include seven non-equity partners and seven associates spread across the firm’s offices in Haddonfield, Hackensack, Flemington, Princeton and Philadelphia offices. The Haddonfield office is losing the most employees. Of the 27 staff members, 19 are secretaries and file clerks and eight are paralegals.
The president of the firm, Christopher Gibson, said, the layoffs were “the most difficult thing I have done. We couldn’t raise our rates. What we had to do was do more with less.”
Commercial litigation lost two partners while intellectual property, general litigation, real estate, corporate law and trusts and estates all lost one partner in the layoffs. The associates laid off came from the areas of general litigation, personal injury, commercial litigation, corporate law, real estate and trusts and estates.
The president of Princeton Legal Search Group, David Garber, said that the firm has to explain its reasons for the layoffs. Garber said that he counts the firm as a client.
“For a firm that has announced layoffs, any lateral candidate will question why. That is something the firm will have to address head-on,” he says.