Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that law firms are curtailing their associate programs. Some are delaying the start dates of new hires, and some have actually rescinded employment offers to law students about to graduate. The salary for new lawyers at major firms is around $160,000.

This interests me because I was in the law biz pre-Bob Arno. But more so because my nephew, about to graduate from Harvard Law School, has one of those lucrative job deals, offered a year ago near the end of his second year of law school. I’m not worried about my nephew—he’ll graduate at or near the top of his class. I’m just astonished at how crass and cold-hearted employers can be, especially in a small segment of business in which everyone makes relatively big bucks.

The article paraphrases

…James Jones, senior vice president at legal consulting firm Hildebrandt International. Law firms, he says, are reluctant to lay off people because it is expensive and time-consuming to staff up when the market regains its vigor.

What about being reluctant because you’d be putting people out of work in hard times, because they’ve worked hard for you and you feel a modicum of loyalty, because you like them?

Granted, the WSJ has only paraphrased Mr. Jones, who may well have said more than what makes a good read. I hope so. Associate lawyers in competitive firms work themselves to the bone and, for some, it never gets better.