On Monday, Above the Law posted a leaked email to Paul Hastings associates from Shinyung Oh, a commercial litigation lawyer who was fired by the firm on 30 April. The email noted that she was let go six days after a miscarriage and a few months after a poor performance review. The legal blog touted the missive as proof of lay-offs and in a follow-up post said the firm had canned at least 22 associates.
However, a Paul Hastings spokeswoman told The Am Law Daily that while some associates have been let go, they were part of typical annual performance reviews. The firm declined to reveal how many had been let go but said the numbers were in line with last year's cuts.
The firm said: "There is always resulting turnover [after performance reviews] but we have not done any layoffs. It's really normal attrition based on performance evaluations and the numbers show year over year that we're up in associates. We're a healthy firm in terms of head count and real revenue perspective and the numbers really say the story."
Paul Hastings would not comment on specific firings, such as that of Oh, who spoke with The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog on Thursday (8 May). Oh said she sent the email because she didn't want associates being laid off for economic reasons to feel as though they were being judged for their performance.
"I want them to feel like they're not completely alone and not to worry about their own performance when it's the firm doing something for economic reasons" and because of a "desire to increase partner profits", Oh said.
Oh claimed she hadn't been told her performance was lacking until a week before her last review. Yet according to her 2006 performance review, obtained by the The Wall Street Journal, she was generally described as exceeding or meeting expectations.
Oh has been able to speak out about the firings because she turned down a severance agreement for three months' base pay, which would have restricted her from speaking about the firm publicly.
Paul Hastings said its associate headcount is up "considerably" for the year and the firm expects to welcome a larger summer associate class than in 2007. Revenue increased 19.9% in 2007 to $813.5m (£411.9m). Profits per partner were up 19.6% to $1.92m (£970,000).
