With Biglaw Billing Rate At 15-Year Low, Associates Should Be Prepared For More Layoffs

// Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.

I would not be surprised to see more announcements of that sort.

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— Owen Burman, managing director of the Wells Fargo legal specialty group, in comments given to Bloomberg Law on the likelihood of more associate layoffs happening this year, thanks to historically low billable rates. The latest Wells Fargo report notes that in the first quarter, lawyers at some of the largest U.S. law firms billed at an annual pace of less than 1,600 hours, which is the lowest figure has been in about 15 years. According to Burman, an annual billable rate that low is “not something firms have historically accommodated.”

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Biglaw, Billable Hours, Layoffs, Quote of the Day