The firm received between $5 million-$10 million from the SBA in April to save more than 400 jobs.

By Samantha Stokes | July 07, 2020 at 03:51 PM

Hughes Hubbard & Reed—an AmLaw 200 firm that received a multimillion-dollar paycheck protection loan from the Small Business Administration—has laid off an undisclosed number of its attorneys and staff, according to firm statements Tuesday.

The New York-based firm confirmed the layoffs to Above the Law, which reported that associates were affected. The firm said in a separate statement to Law.com that the PPP loan money was used for its intended purpose, “to save jobs during the worst of the crisis.” But now more than three months later, the firm said, it felt the “deep impact” from court closures and a slowdown in deal activity, and the firm made “difficult decisions on staffing to address the current environment.”

Firm chair Ted Mayer declined to comment further Tuesday afternoon, and the firm declined to disclose how many attorneys and staff members were affected by layoffs. According to Above the Law, which pointed to a lack of work triggering layoffs, Hughes Hubbard is offering affected associates three months severance pay as well as five complimentary sessions with a legal recruiter to find a new job.

Hughes Hubbard’s attorney head count was 248 in 2019, including 138 associates, according to NLJ 500 data.

Hughes Hubbard is among the dozens of Am Law 200 firms that received PPP loans from the SBA, after Congress in March earmarked $350 billion in funding as business loans as the coronavirus pandemic caused economic turmoil in the U.S. and beyond. The firm on April 15 received between $5 million to $10 million from CitiBank and said in its application the money would preserve 442 jobs, according to the SBA data.

“We decided in the early stage of the pandemic to keep our entire team intact for as long as we could, hopeful for a swift economic recovery,” the firm said in a statement Tuesday. “We were one of the more than 100 firms that decided in the early stage of the pandemic to apply for the PPP and were approved based on the SBA criteria. That money was used for its intended purpose, to save jobs during the worst of the crisis.”

“Now more than three months into the pandemic, the deep impact of court closures and a slowdown in deal activity have given us a better-informed sense of the manner in which the pandemic has changed the way we do business. We, like other firms, have made some difficult decisions on staffing to address the current environment,” the firm’s statement continued. “We regret the hardship these steps cause as we, and the industry, evolve to meet this changing environment. We have confidence that the action we take today will enable us to serve our clients, to compete at the highest level and to deploy our people effectively.”

The Hughes Hubbard layoffs come months after much of the legal industry responded to the pandemic in the first and second quarter with pay cuts, furloughs, layoffs and other austerity measures. At the time, Hughes Hubbard resisted cost-cutting measures.

The firm’s gross revenue and head count have been trending downward since 2013, when it brought in a record $396 million and employed 351 lawyers, ranking No. 72 on the 2014 Am Law 200. It fell off the Am Law 100 rankings in 2017. Last year, the firm’s gross revenue dropped by 5.7% to $288.1 million.

https://www.law.com/2020/07/07/hughes-hubbard-lays-off-attorneys-and-staff-after-receiving-ppp-loan/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4024888&forum_id=2#40565071)