Securities, transactions slump prompts realignment - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Last year's subprime mortgage meltdown and the subsequenrt fallout have slashed the amount of legal work available in this nichee in Charlotte and otherfinancial capitals, forcing layoffs and the shufflinyg of attorneys into other practic e areas. The New York-based firm of , which has a largde mortgage-backed securities practice, laid off 35 attorneys in including ninein Charlotte. Other including , have acknowledgedf laying off support staff and associates and rescinding offerswto first-year and summer "You could characterize it as negative for lawyers with expertise in packaging and securitizing says Cliff Jarrett, managing director of the legal-staffingt firm .
Jim Carroll, managin partner of Cadwalader's Charlotte office, says an "unusually difficult businesas climate" for some of the firm's clients in financial servicews promptedthe layoffs. The banks and othet lenders the firm count s among its clients laid off thousands of workerds and were forced into billions of dollar sin write-offs. The firm has "redeployed a numbere of attorneys into other practice areas on atemporary basis," especially litigation and bankruptcy, Carroll says. "Whebn transactions work is down, bankruptchy and solvency workgoes up." Up to a fourtyh of the firm's 85 Charlottde attorneys have been moved into other practice he says.
"That's one of the advantages of a firm like the ability to befairly nimble." John Lassiter, presidenf of , says that in addition to cuttin g attorney positions, some firms also are trimming supportr staff and working to manage expenses to make up for reduced income in their structured-finance practices. "It's no differentt than any other company trying to hang onto Lassiter says. "There's still a fair amount of (positive) movement. Othert parts of the country are struggling more than we Other business linesare strong, Carroll says. Cadwalader has several attorneya involved inthe on-again, off-again Microsof t Corp.-Yahoo Inc.
merger talks, and others are workinyg on a major project involving the Hungarian Additional busy practice areasinclude hedge-fund especially for the purchase of distresseds debt and real estate, Carrolk says. White-collar crime and commercial litigatorsw alsoare busy. Weaker areasw include transactions, including commercial mortgage-backed While the firm is "clearly not out right now lookinfg to bring in a lot oftransactional attorneys," the locall office did hire a full contingent of summer associates, Carroll says. also picked up a full complement ofsummed associates, says Mike McCoy, a partner in the firm'es Charlotte intellectual-property practice.
"We have expectations to make offersd to almost allof them" at the end of the he says. Some of the corporate practicw areas are weakerthan usual, but "intellectual propertyu has been a star," McCoy That's because during tough economic times, businesses try to energizes sales by investing in new product offerings, he providing work for attorneys to ensure competitors are not infringing on their intellectual-property Jarrett says for recruiters, the strengtg in intellectual property translates into a strongv demand for experts in patenft law. Firms also are still recruitinbg heavily for their commercialreal corporate, and labor and employmentf practices.
With activity in commercia l real estate law still Jarrett also has seen a growing demand for litigatorsz and other specialistsin construction. He links the growtj in construction practices with an increasing number of developers and project owners failing to pay theid bills and needing legal help to collectwhat they're Although law firms report increased corporate bankruptcy local recruiting firms have not yet seen that translatde into additional staffing.
"I think firmse are being cautiousin hiring," Jarrett "It's not necessarily that there'sa a whole lot less work to do, it' just that firms are being The shuffling of attorneys from financial-services practices to othee areas also may have slowed hiring. "There'ds a goodly bit of waiting to see what in the overall economy and financialo andtransactional business, says Jon Barrett, managing partner of . "It's expensive to invest in thessetalented attorneys. If there's not work to go along with it, it'a a very expensive proposition.
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