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As we are in a Coronavirus quarantine across the United States, and the world, really, thinking long term what area of the legal field will be most effected negatively and positively? Meaning what areas of law would be hiring more in the aftermath of a possible legitimate recession, and where might firms be cutting back?

I would imagine bankruptcy practice will be booming. Thoughts?

Coronavirus is intrinsically a medium-run phenomenon, so I don't see how it should affect one's long-term predictions. We were due for a recession anyway, in terms of average time between recessions, so it's not even necessarily a deviation from the normal cyclicity of the U.S. (/ global) economy.

Definitely don't do BK unless you actually like it.

edit: to be clear, if you're median at a T20 and trying to make sure you can catch the last biglaw train out of Dodge then yeah, it might make strategic sense to develop a strong bankruptcy, restructuring, etc. focus in order to get a job. But for someone who actually has a choice between M&A, tax, etc. I don't think there's some buy-low opportunity here that is going to pay huge dividends eight years from now when you're trying to go in-house or make partner.

Regarding bankruptcy and practice choice:

I've been there in the financial crisis. More than half of my summer class of 2009 wanted to do bankruptcy because they thought it would make them safer. It didn't. Bankruptcy had no special appetite for taking on juniors- things were moving so fast that it was hard to even bring juniors in meaningfully. They actually laid off first year bankruptcy associates when the rest of the department was billing 3,000 a year. The firm decided to not make department specific offers because they had no idea where they would need people in 1.5-2 years (longer due to start date deferrals).

By all means, do bankruptcy if you want to do it, but don't do it because you think it will make your job safer.

Leveraged finance is busy in both boom and bust, which is it's own downside. There's also fewer exit opportunities compared to m&a.

I by no means was suggesting I was looking into bankruptcy work as a result of a recession, more so was just my guess of one of the areas that would see increased demand. Therefore the reason for this post. Lol sorry, this quarantine thing has me bored.

Labor & Employment (at the handful of big firms that have meaningful LE groups) do well in a recession/down economy (lots of people losing their jobs and suing). But it isn't a high margin practice group; so whether or not these groups are "safer" or are hiring more people will likely depend on the health of the firm generally (plus, if things really go to hell, everyone in those groups will be holding on to their jobs for dear life).

RaceJudicata wrote:Labor & Employment (at the handful of big firms that have meaningful LE groups) do well in a recession/down economy (lots of people losing their jobs and suing). But it isn't a high margin practice group; so whether or not these groups are "safer" or are hiring more people will likely depend on the health of the firm generally (plus, if things really go to hell, everyone in those groups will be holding on to their jobs for dear life).

Which Biglaws have meaningful L&E groups in your opinion?

Whatislaw wrote:

RaceJudicata wrote:Labor & Employment (at the handful of big firms that have meaningful LE groups) do well in a recession/down economy (lots of people losing their jobs and suing). But it isn't a high margin practice group; so whether or not these groups are "safer" or are hiring more people will likely depend on the health of the firm generally (plus, if things really go to hell, everyone in those groups will be holding on to their jobs for dear life).

Which Biglaws have meaningful L&E groups in your opinion?

There are some firms that do only LE work. Thinking of Littler, Seyfarth Shaw, Ogletree, Jackson Lewis. And then there are others with solid LE practices - Morgan Lewis, Proskauer, and a handful of others I can't think of rn.

Lots of folks in bigfed now fled there from biglaw after they were forced to do bankruptcy. Let that sink in.

Wild Card wrote:Lots of folks in bigfed now fled there from biglaw after they were forced to do bankruptcy. Let that sink in.

What does that mean? I'm a little lost...

Whatislaw wrote:

RaceJudicata wrote:Labor & Employment (at the handful of big firms that have meaningful LE groups) do well in a recession/down economy (lots of people losing their jobs and suing). But it isn't a high margin practice group; so whether or not these groups are "safer" or are hiring more people will likely depend on the health of the firm generally (plus, if things really go to hell, everyone in those groups will be holding on to their jobs for dear life).

Which Biglaws have meaningful L&E groups in your opinion?

Proskauer, Jones Day, Morgan Lewis, Gibson Dunn (on smaller side, but a lot of big cases).

Whatislaw wrote:

RaceJudicata wrote:Labor & Employment (at the handful of big firms that have meaningful LE groups) do well in a recession/down economy (lots of people losing their jobs and suing). But it isn't a high margin practice group; so whether or not these groups are "safer" or are hiring more people will likely depend on the health of the firm generally (plus, if things really go to hell, everyone in those groups will be holding on to their jobs for dear life).

Which Biglaws have meaningful L&E groups in your opinion?

Edit - double post