The news that Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is
dumping 35 legal secretaries, or “making some adjustments to our existing legal support structure,” is a timely reminder not to get too confident in your own indispensability.
Take steps now so that when cuts have to be made, you ‘ll be the cutter, not
the cuttee.
Can I blame any firm for cutting back on use of legal
secretaries? Not really. Lawyers, even the older ones, are far more fully functional
than they once were. If some of them seem incapable of licking an envelope, I’m
sure it’s a task they’re capable of learning. If they can’t, well, they can
always email.
Yet, still, aim not to be one of those cut in your own
office. If I were at Wilson Sonsini in any role, I’d take a look around at who
was going and who was staying. What were the differences between the two
groups? For whom did they work? How different were their personalities? Their
skill sets? Their work habits? Their ages? Their ambition levels? Their kindnesses?
It’s not enough to do your job well. You should probably
know (and be doing) portions of others’ jobs, too. Not in my position description doesn’t really cut it in these times
of economic strife and, as the good folks at Wilson Sonsini put it, “increased
operational efficiencies.” Keep yourself current. Pay attention to firm
politics. Try to work with someone whose staff is always on the right side of
any cost cutting. Know where else in the legal market you could possibly turn,
and develop the skills you’ll need to be competitive there. Find an opportunity
in a layoff, even if you are safe in this go-round.
—Lori Tripoli
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