In an industry hit by layoffs and downsizings, shrinking profits and partnership dissolutions in the recession, Jackson Lewis L.L.P. has defied the trends. A national boutique firm specializing in workplace law, the 52-year-old practice with headquarters in White Plains continues to grow while competing for more demanding and cost-focused clients for whom loyalty to any one legal firm is a premium many no longer are willing to pay.

“The firms that had circled the wagons four or five years ago, essentially now they”™re in trouble,” said Patrick L. Vaccaro, Jackson Lewis”™s 70-year-old firmwide managing partner, at the firm”™s 1 N. Broadway office, where more than 200 attorneys and staffers are employed. “You have to keep growing,” he said.

At Jackson Lewis, “Our growth is both strategic and opportunistic,” said Vaccaro. In 2006, when Vaccaro, a lifelong New Rochelle resident, was elected the firm”™s top managing partner after 25 years as managing partner of its White Plains office, the firm made a conscious effort to grow into more major markets, he said.

As the nation”™s second largest workplace law firm, Jackson Lewis is “a very attractive product right now” for labor and employment law partners looking to move from other firms, said Vaccaro. Those lateral moves have given Jackson Lewis the opportunity to open offices in cities such as Cleveland and Cincinnati and most recently in Baltimore.

The firm has grown from 21 offices and about 390 attorneys in 1996 to 45 offices and about 600 attorneys this month, when Jackson Lewis announced it will expand its mid-Atlantic presence with the Baltimore office. There nine attorneys will move from the local office of DLA Piper, a Manhattan-based international practice that laid off more than 100 attorneys in the U.S. in 2009. Jackson Lewis also this month added six labor and employment attorneys from Ford & Harrison L.L.P. to its Phoenix, Ariz., office.

In 2008, as the recession began to shake up law firms nationwide, Jackson Lewis added eight offices and 80 attorneys. In 2009, it opened three offices and added 55 attorneys. Vaccaro said he expects “conservative growth” for the firm this year. ?“A lot of this is being where your clients are,” said Vaccaro. “All labor and employment law is really local.”

Growth has not been limited to attorney and office numbers. Jackson Lewis has had record hours, billings, revenue and net income every year since 2006, Vaccaro said. The firm went from 724,000 billable hours that year to a projected 990,000 billable hours in 2009.

“Clients are much more demanding today in value for the dollar,” said Vaccaro. “They”™ve become incredibly astute consumers. The go-go days of the ”™80s and ”™90s are gone. They demand certainty. They demand to know where their budget is going.”

The pressures from employers demanding more bang for their bucks paid in legal fees began a few years before the recession reached the offices of law practices across the country, squeezing attorneys”™ compensation and even some well-established firms out of existence. Five to seven years ago, Jackson Lewis already was a “pioneer” in alternative billing practices, taking risks by offering clients options such as flat fees, capped fees and project rates in place of the standard billable hours, said Vaccaro.

“Over the last five years,” said Jackson Lewis attorney Joseph A. Saccomano Jr., managing partner of the White Plains office, “it (alternative billing) has gone from something clients have asked for ”¦ now, it”™s not asked for, it”™s demanded. It”™s the factor or a very significant factor in the decision” to retain a law firm”™s services.

Cost-cutting clients have turned up the pressure in the recession. “In 2008 and 2009, that was flat-out: ”˜The case has to be done with this much money,”™” said Saccomano.

For law firms, flexibility in billing has become essential. “If you”™re not willing to do it, you”™re out of business,” said Vaccaro.

Despite that demand from clients, U.S. law firms raised their average firmwide billing rate again in 2009, though the increase was lower than in recent years, The National Law Journal recently reported. Its annual survey found the average billing rate at firms increased 2.5 percent last year, compared with rate increases of 4.3 percent in 2008 and 7.7 percent in 2007. Billing rates are expected to rise again in 2010 at less than 5 percent.

Vaccaro said much of Jackson Lewis”™s work with clients is prevention counseling to help employers avoid costly litigation. Litigation is “the sport of kings,” he said. “Our job is not to play roulette with our clients”™ money.”

The recession has brought a surge in legal services in some areas of labor and employment law. Vaccaro said Jackson Lewis has done more counseling with employers on lawfully reducing their employee numbers. “Some of these companies have no choice but to reduce their force,” he said. “How do you do that in a lawful way?”

Saccomano said discrimination charges brought by employees were at record levels in 2009 because of layoffs and downsizing. “There was a great uptick in employment litigation last year,” largely because workers feared they would not be able to find other jobs, he said.

Jackson Lewis attorneys also fielded more inquiries from struggling employers about combining jobs, work schedules and bringing employees on leave back into the workplace. “There was a huge growth in that,” said Saccomano. “There was also a huge growth in wage-hour cases. It put a huge pressure on employers who were already struggling with their budgets.”

Both attorneys said the recession in 2009 spurred management and labor unions to collaborate on how to save jobs while cutting costs through negotiations. “That”™s a very big part of our bargaining now,” said Vaccaro.

“Most employees don”™t want to sue their employers. Most employees would rather resolve their issues within the workplace.

“I believe very strongly today in total transparency,” said Vaccaro. “That”™s the way we run this law firm. That”™s what I believe employers should do ”¦ Make employees a part of the solution to the problem and it will get done.”

Before you hire ”¦

Employers can reduce their legal risk by knowing what to avoid in a job interview. Here are five questions an interviewer should never ask an applicant, according to Joseph Saccomano Jr., managing partner of the White Plains office of Jackson Lewis L.L.P.:
1) Do not ask an applicant about their marital status, religion, national origin, race or any other characteristic protected by law.
2) Do not ask an applicant about their political beliefs or affiliations.
3)Â Do not ask an applicant whether they have any medical conditions; rather ask whether they can perform the essential functions of a job with or without a reasonable accommodation.
4) Do not ask an applicant whether they have a driver”™s license unless driving is a requirement of the job.
5) Do not conduct any background investigations of the applicant without first obtaining the appropriate written consent forms from the applicant.