Lawyers are holding their breath after two firms with L.A. offices laid off several local associates this month.
“There’s no question that among corporate associates, and particularly younger corporate associates, who are one to three years out of law school, there is a heightened concern about their own job security,” said Richard Kolodny, president of Portfolio Group LLC, an attorney placement firm in L.A.
Particularly in corporate transactional departments which handle initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and large financial transactions work has been at a relative standstill.
Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP laid off 50 of 700 to 800 associates firm-wide, including at its L.A. office. The firm’s chief marketing officer, Bonnie Ciaramella, declined to reveal specific numbers at the L.A. office, which has 70 attorneys.
Crosby Heafey Roach & May PC laid off five associates in its L.A. office and three in Century City. The firm, which has 55 associates between the two offices, laid off across the board, said Jack Nelson, chairman of the management committee at Crosby Heafey.
“The economy has been in a tailspin for sometime now, and it recently has become apparent to us it’s going to be a longer and more sustained downturn than we would’ve anticipated six months ago,” Nelson said. “Revenues will not grow as fast as projected late last year and earlier this year.”
Joseph Troy Dies
Joseph Troy, co-founder of Century City-based Troy & Gould PC, died Oct. 16 of leukemia.
Troy, 63, who founded the firm with Ronald Malin in 1970, specialized in corporate, securities and business law.
The Pennsylvania native was chairman of the California State Bar’s Task Force on Complex Litigation, which was established in 1997 to lobby for a separate business court system.
‘Larger Than Life’
A World War II veteran who runs the Michel Thomas Language Center in Beverly Hills sued the Los Angeles Times and its parent company, Tribune Co., for $10 million, claiming the newspaper published an article that was false and defamatory.
Michel Thomas, 87, sued for libel Oct. 9 in U.S. District Court in L.A. in connection with the April 15, 2001 article, written by Roy Rivenburg and titled “Larger Than Life.”
Thomas claims he was an agent of the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps. During that time, he said, he captured an SS officer who was involved in the killing of American prisoners of war during the Battle of the Bulge and escaped from Nazi Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie.
In the April 15 article, the reporter wrote that a number of Thomas’ claims could not be confirmed, among them his military service and his official CIC card.
The Times declined to comment.
Staff Reporter Amanda Bronstad can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 225 or at [email protected].
