As if long hours, high stakes and intense competition were not enough, not lawyers are grappling with client cutbacks, lower pay and layoffs. Some lawyers, as a result, are cracking under pressure. Three suicides have been reported at major US law firms in the past six months, reports The National Law Journal, though a lack of statistics on attorney suicides prior to this are hard to come by. In two of the reported suicides, the deteriorating economy may have been directly affected the attorneys’ lives, both being laid off amid cost-cutting at their firms. “We really, as lawyers, are dunked into a bath of stress,” Dan Lukasik, a trial lawyer said. 

Firms embroiled in Moscow duel 

Two international law firms are currently locked in a battle over the future of a partner team. Dechert’s Moscow office was set to unveil the hire of the group last week, but a last-ditch attempt from the group’s current firm, Chadbourne & Parke, to persuade some of the group to stay has raised the possibility that Dechert’s Moscow office launch could be derailed. Dechert, meanwhile, remains confident the team in its entirety would be joining the firm. The team is internationally focused with strong UK law capabilities. Chadbourne became one of the first US firms to establish an office in Moscow when it opened in 1990. It has around 30 US, English and Russian-qualified lawyers.