The Bureau of Labor Statistics’s latest report provides the following information: 1,100 legal jobs were lost in the month of January. Its a small improvement when compared to December’s 2,900 job lost. November had 5,800 legal jobs disappear. From the time period of January 2009 through January 2010, a total of 44,700 people were laid off in the legal sector.

Source:  www.jdjournal.com

Cravath announced back in June that its 2010 incoming first-years would actually be deferred until 2011. Now the firm is saying that some of the newbies will actually get to start sooner than later. The firm will be conducting a lottery to decide who gets to start work in the fall. Those who have acquired employment elsewhere for the year, as well as those who have federal clerkships will be ineligible for the lottery.

Source:  www.businessinsider.com

White & Case had an 11 percent decrease in revenue in 2009, compared to 2008. The latter year, the firm made a total of 1.467 billion. That number dropped to 1.307 billion. White & Case’s profit per equity parnter (PEP) increased a mere .3 percent from 2008’s 1.59 million to 1.595 million in 2009.

Source:  www.thelawyer.com

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison have announced the firm’s 2009 financial numbers. Overall revenue dropped 3.8 percent, but profits per equity partner rose from $2.65 million in 2008 to $2.69 million in 2009. This was achieved without the help of layoffs and even with an increase in number of lawyers from 647 to 653.

Source:  www.nylj.com

White & Case is loosing another eight partners who are leaving the firm for Latham & Watkins. These laterals will be dispersed amongst the following cities: Abu Dhabi, New York, Riyadh and London. Craig Nethercott and Glen Ireland are joining the London office. Villiers Terblanche and Nick Collins will be at the firm’s Abu Dhabi office. Riyadh welcome attorneys Christopher Langdon and Mohammed Al-Sheikh. New York will be boosted by attorneys Christopher Cross and Clement Fondufe.

Source:  www.legalweek.com

Bryan Cave has announced an revenue increase of 12 percent in 2009. Revenue rose from $502.5 million in 2008 to $563 million. These numbers are partially due to the firm’s many changes in attorney numbers. Here’s the story: 945 lawyers closed the 2008 year with Bryan Cave. At the start of the 2009 year, however, Bryan Cave merged with Powell Goldstein creating a megafirm of 1,165 lawyers. A month later, the firm was forced to dump 58 attorneys and 76 staff memebers because of the economic downturn.

Source:  www.thelawyer.com

Winstead not only deferred 11 first years, the firm rescinded two offers right before they were to start work (the second time). Today, only nine attorneys start work at Winstead. The firm does not share why the two attorneys have been permanently dumped. The possibilities are endless. The two in question may have gotten into some personal legal trouble; we only have our imaginations to fill in the story.

Source:  www.abovethelaw.com

Amidst the bad news in the legal world of 2009, there appears to be some positive news. The time period of 12 months ending on September 30th 2009 had 2,775 partners join or leave BigLaw firms. This number increased by 10.6 from the year before.  A total of 17 percent of the partner lateral moves consisted of litigation lawyers.  Banking and Finance partners trailed closely behind with 15 percent. Corporate partners composed 10 percent of the total partner moves.

Source:  www.amlawydaily.typepad.com