by Calculated Risk on 2/12/2009 10:59:00 PM

Reader Hoopajoops writes:

[A] huge number of law firms laid off attorneys today. This is an unprecedented bloodbath. DLA Piper laid off 140 people in the UK on Tuesday and today cut another 80 lawyers and 100 staff in the US, Holland & Knight laid off 243, including 70 lawyers, Epstein Becker lays off 23 attorneys and 30 staff, Bryan Cave cut 58 attorneys and 76 staffers, Luce Forward laid off 27 attorneys on Monday and today cancelled their entire 2009 summer program, Faegre & Benson cuts 29 attorneys, Cadwalader laid off 3 attorneys in london, a small count but Cad is one of the big names, Cozen O'Connor laid off 55 secretaries and 6 paralegals, all in all an incredible day.

Abovethelaw.com, a legal gossip rag, is keeping track of the layoffs ...

I've been hearing rumors of legal layoffs ...

The WSJ Law Blog: The Darkest Day Ever for Big Law Firms?

from Hoopajoops (Author unknown):
Black Thursday

On a windy Manhattan winter day
With the economy tanking under skies of gray
Associates and staff met an unkind end
As PPP's continued to descend

Dechert released nineteen by noon
And greater losses would be announced soon
Next came news from Bryan Cave
Where fifty-eight young careers went to the grave

Goodwin Proctor continued the act
Wheen seventy-four employees were promptly sacked
Then fell the ax at Holland & Knight
The steady paychecks of hundreds vanished from sight

An industry leader in expanding too fast
DLA Piper added scores more to the unemployed caste
Then a large cull from the North Star state
As twenty-nine associates met a cruel fate

Cadwalader sent sixteen Londoners to redundancy consultation
But a week without Cadwalader layoffs would be quite the aberration
The final cut of the day came at a mid-size shop
Where more than fifty felt the ax drop

Our sorrow is deep for our colleagues fired en masse
But do keep in mind that this too shall pass
We share in your pain, your shame, your dismay
On this darkest of dark, this Black Thursday