RAMSTACK: Plunge also hits lawyers

Above the Law COLUMN:

As stock-market investors watch their investments plunge from financial firm failures, lawyers are worrying about their job security.

Financial firms are major employers for lawyers.

“The impact on the credit market means less deal flow, which means less income flow,” said Justin Bernold, director of legal recruiting firm Lateral Link. “Associates [lawyers] are beginning to see more turmoil in the financial market trickling down into their careers.”

Lateral Link surveyed about 830 lawyers and law students nationwide about how the Wall Street meltdown of the past two weeks will affect them.

About 42 percent of lawyers say collapsing financial markets are likely to damage their careers, according to the survey.

The results varied between regions. In New York, 55 percent of lawyers said their careers would be hurt, but only 37 percent were worried in Washington.

Some of the New York refugees are knocking on the doors of Washington law firms, according to Lateral Link.

“I think a lot of folks are just looking nationally wherever they can,” Mr. Bernold said. “D.C. is one of the first places they would look because it’s relatively close, relatively easy to waive in and a large legal market.” “Waiving in” refers to getting a court’s permission to practice law in a different state or jurisdiction.

For some firms, the Wall Street meltdown creates merely a shift in priorities. The portion of their business that deals in contracts and securities might be falling, but their bankruptcy business is picking up. They also expect to handle more litigation from investors anxious to sue over their dropping stock and bond values.

“In the wake of the last week, they’re actually going gangbusters,” Mr. Bernold said.

In other news …

cA federal court decision last week sided with George Washington University in determining the extent to which security personnel can be considered negligent for failing to protect people near public buildings or events.

In essence, the court said internal memos telling guards how to protect a site are recommendations, not official legal standards for determining whether they can be sued when someone is injured by a criminal act.

The decision could be important for the Washington area, where public buildings are a significant part of the landscape and many of them are used to host public events.

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