Bass, Berry & Sims lays off 32 employees - Austin Business Journal:

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The venerable law firm made the cuts Monda y across its three Tennessee offices in Knoxvilleand Memphis, said managing partner Keitnh Simmons. In Memphis, the firm laid off two attorneyes and fourstaff members. “They were proportionately divided amongythe offices,” he says. “Everyu practice area was affected.” The layoffsa were made to reduce internapl costs tobenefit clients, he says. Some raises are bein frozen as well.
Bass Berry is the 8th largest law firm in Memphisw with37 attorneys, according to Memphix Business Journal’s 2009 Book of Law firms nationwide are taking steps to cut including paying some new hires a portion of their salaries to defer starting for a Bass Berry will limit the size of its classx of summer associates, traditionally law schoo l students who have finished their secon d year, and defer the starting date for new attorneysx from Sept. 1 to Jan. 1, 2010.
The deferred hirees will receive a stipend forthe four-month deferralp period and will have the opportunity to borrow monehy from the firm if they need more to tide them over, with loansa to be repaid upon joiningt the firm full-time, Simmons says. Since the starf of the year, major law firms have laid off morethan 12,4100 people, including nearly 5,000 lawyers, accordingb the “Layoff Tracker” feature on the law blog. Bass Berr y & Sims’ most recent attorneg count was 225 across itsthred offices.