Law Firm Partners Can Expect Major Layoffs This Year

"You're fired."

First junior lawyers and office staff lost their jobs.

Now, as the legal market continues to underperform, law firms are coming for their partners' jobs.

Wells Fargo Private Bank's Legal Specialty Group surveyed roughly 120 firms and found about 15 percent planned to cut the number of partners in the first quarter this year, Reuters reported back in November.

And of the 113 managing partners and firm chairmen who responded to an American Lawyer poll, 55 percent said they planned to get rid of between one and five partners this year, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

"You're only as secure as the amount of money you bring in," an unnamed partner who was recently let go from his firm told WSJ. "The job is to make money for the firm."

The newest cuts shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

The legal industry, like many others, has been faltering significantly in the past few years, and demand for legal services dropped .8 percent in the third quarter of 2012.

"For the year, demand is now basically flat," Peer Monitor found after studying 125 large to mid-size firms in 2012.

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