This morning, GM began calling dealerships and letting them know they will no longer be part of their dealer network. The company is pulling the plug on 1,100 “underperforming and very small sales volume U.S. dealers” throughout the U.S.

“Dealers around the country nervously awaited news Friday morning, with some saying they were in the dark about how they would be notified. In Richmond, Va., Royal Chevrolet co-owner Del Mugford was slightly relieved when he sifted through FedEx packages Friday morning and hadn’t received any bad news from General Motors. But he knew his future could be determined by a phone call or a piece of mail.”

The announcement of the cuts came the day after Chrysler announced that it was going to be dropping 789 of its roughly 3,200 dealerships by around June 9.

GM’s cuts wont be effective immediately though, the dealerships agreements will terminate at the end of  October 2010.

Between the two companies, the job cuts could send more than 100,000 dealership workers to the unemployment line.

Both companies have too many dealerships for too few sales are slashing costs as they race to restructure.

“GM’s dealer cuts are part of the company’s plan announced last month to cut more than 2,600 dealers by 2010. The remaining cuts will come from closed Saturn and Hummer dealers, along with 400 dealers that the company expects will close voluntarily. Another 500 would be consolidated into other dealerships.”

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RealDealDocs.com is a division of Practice Technologies, Inc. the creators of SmartRules.com.
SmartRules provides step by step guides to local rules and civil procedure for state courts & federal courts throughout the country.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Squire, Sanders & Dempsey is the latest firm to feel the crunch from these tough economic times. The Cleveland, Ohio based firm with 32 offices internationally, has just let go 32 attorneys and has cut first year associate pay by 10 percent.

News of the associates’ pay cuts were reportedly circulated via voice mail.

“The Plain Dealer reports that first-year associate salaries will drop from $130,000 to $117,000 per year as of May 1. Employment laws in Europe and Asia will require that the cuts take place for associates in Europe and Asia a month from now.”

Most of the fired were reportedly at the firm for less than three years, while seven associates were let go from the firm’s Cleveland office.

This is the third go round of layoff’s for the firm. They previously had let go 22 associates and eight paralegals in November, and nine employees at their Miami office in January.

Times are tough.

“Timothy Sheerhan, the firm’s hiring chairman, told the Plain Dealer that the salary and staff cuts reflect a drop in business both for Squire Sanders and its clients. Sheerhan told the paper that clients have told the firm that “the value that we provide is out of line in some cases with what we are charging for our work.”‘

“Sheerhan said that besides Cleveland, the firm’s layoffs occurred in China, the Slovak Republic, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Ukraine, the U.K., Russia, Poland and the Dominican Republic. Besides the seven layoffs from the Cleveland office, another seven came from the rest of the firm’s U.S. offices, including one in Columbus.”

New hires have also had their start dates postponed until January 2010.

To view the whole article, click here.

RealDealDocs.com is a division of Practice Technologies, Inc. the creators of SmartRules.com.
SmartRules provides step by step guides to local rules and civil procedure for state courts & federal courts throughout the country.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Last week I posted about law firm layoff rumors that were overheard on a train. Well today, for a different law firm, rumors turned into reality.

In an indication that even some of the strongest law firms are suffering, Latham Watkins LLP, an industry giant, announced layoffs of 190 lawyers, which is about 8% of the law firms attorneys. In addition to the attorney layoffs, the firm is also terminating 250 non-lawyer positions. In recent months, the Los Angeles based firm have been firing attorneys and staff, freezing salaries, and cutting costs.

The New york office has reportedly laid off 440 employees, including 10% of their associates.

Tough times.

On a lighter note, their severance packages are being called some of the best in the industry right now. Reportedly they are getting 6 months salary, and medical benefits.

Click here and here for the original articles.

RealDealDocs.com is a division of Practice Technologies, Inc. the creators of SmartRules.com, the first online practice guide for the national litigator and the national litigation practice.

Popularity: 12% [?]

With Hurricane Katrina’s legal drama winding down, lawyers in New Orleans are starting to lose their jobs and must now search for more work. As the mass of litigation spawned by Katrina is ending, it’s time to move on to greener pastures.

And along with lawyers, some staff are being layed off, as well. “There are firms that took Katrina work right after the hurricane and that helped them bridge the last three years,” said Darnell Shuart of Shuart and Associates, a New Orleans legal headhunter. “If they have done nothing else but that work, and haven’t marketed themselves for other things, they’re in trouble right now. Some of them staffed up just to do that work.”

Popularity: 8% [?]

The ongoing financial crisis has sent many lawyers packing. To cut corners, law firms are laying off lawyers. At AmericanLawyer.com, a list of firms in the “layoff” red zone are displayed - (see below).

Therefore, if you work at one of these firms, beware!

The List

Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll
Bell Boyd & Lloyd
Bingham Mccutchen
Blank Rome
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
Clifford Chance
Dechert
Dewey & Leboeuf
DLA Piper
Duane Morris
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
Heller Ehrman
Holland & Knight
Hunton & Williams
Jenner & Block
Katten Muchin Rosenman
Kaye Scholer
Loeb & Loeb
McKee Nelson
Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy
Moore & Van Allen
Morgan & Finnegan
O’Melveny & Myers
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Patton Boggs
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Powell Goldstein
Reed Smith
Seyfarth Shaw
Shutts & Bowen
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan
Synnestvedt & Lechner
Taylor Wessing
Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner
White & Case
Winstead

Popularity: 7% [?]

Steve & Barry’s, a discount clothing chain best known for selling designers by celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker, and tennis star Venus Williams has been saved from bankruptcy in August but are now facing liquidation, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Aquiring Steve & Barry’s is Bay Harbour Management, a New York-based private equity firm, for $168 million. And now…they are already starting to layoff employees, including at least 250 at the company’s Port Washington, N.Y. location.

Advising Bay Harbour is Cahill Gordon & Reindel during the liquidation process and they are receiving a backlash! Without notice, the layoffs were made Monday, violating a 60-day requirement called for under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, stated the class action complaint Outton & Golden filed in a Manhattan court.

In response, Bay Harbour and its investors plan to argue that the layoffs fall under an exception to the WARN Act, which give leeway during “unforeseeable economic circumstances.”

Popularity: 3% [?]

Laying off an enormous amount of people is Citigroup Inc. Shutting its doors on 53,000 more employees in the coming quarters, the bank is struggling to stay afloat after losing huge amounts of money due to debt. Having already reduced its assets by roughly 20 percent in the beginning of the year, the New York-based bank plans to cut corners by 19 percent come 2009.

Eliminating 22,000 jobs is no laughing matter. Citigroup also plans to sell Citi Global Services and its German retail banking business. That alone ensures the loss of 18,000 jobs. And what’s worse…they are cutting other businesses but haven’t announced which ones, yet. So, if you are a Citigroup employee, your days may be numbered.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Weeks before the presidential election, all of us bloggers continuously wrote about the crappy economy, Wall Street corruption, bankruptcy, unemployment, lay-offs and foreclosures. However, I must say that after Barack Obama was elected president, our tunes have changed.

What seemed disastrous now has a newfound hope-vibe attached to it and we are able to see that light at the end of this long, dark tunnel. Therefore, even during hard times, the bright sides are revealing themselves. For lawyers, the hiring scale has risen as they are desperately needed to execute layoffs in “every corner of Corporate America.” Now, layoffs are a real bummer for everyone but someone has to make sure the job is done and done right — fair, reasonable, and legal.

According to The National Law Journal, “layoffs gone wrong can trigger discrimination lawsuits, wrongful discharge claims and disparate-impact class actions.” However, with a great lawyer on board, things will run smoothly. Like I said, during difficult times, there’s always opportunities out there for all!

Popularity: 3% [?]