Abovethelaw.com reports that Fried Frank has cut 41 associates. In addition, it reduced its summer program from 12 to 10 weeks and requested incoming associates to defer their start date to the fall of 2010.
But layoffs, individual or industry-wide, are no longer the story. Not since GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner got his walking papers. GM was The Establishment. Now the story is: Who among The Establishment or What Establishment institution is next? Heads of BigLaw and well as BigLaw as an entity can vanish.
Today, for example, NEW YORK Magazine speculates that The Next could be Citigroup's Vikram Pandit and Newser.com counts out the final days of Pinch and The New York Times Co.
Clearly, The Establishment became so established that it ossified. The new economy, especially since it's increasingly driven by digital, has a speeded-up [read that: Hypomanic] metabolism. No The Establishment figure has the game to think/act so wired.
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