Many highly credentialed law school graduates join Am Law 200 firms each year knowing they don’t intend to stay for very long. Few of them, however, join with the expectation that the terms of their departure will be decided for them. But in 2008 and 2009, as the markets crashed, law firm leaders across the country decided to lay off associates. By our count, nearly 2,900 Am Law associates lost their jobs during that time.
Five years later, what’s become of those laid-off lawyers? Our research shows that those unlucky 2,900 have ended up in every corner of the legal profession—small firms, in-house departments, government positions and back in Big Law—as well as working in industries far removed from the law.
