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The ground continues to shift beneath the feet of employees in a variety of fields in Memphis.
Bass Berry & Sims PLC, with law offices in Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville, has let go 32 employees. That number includes six from the firm’s Downtown Memphis office – two lawyers and four staffers.
Across the state, the firm’s 32 job cuts equate to 10 attorneys and 22 staffers. Keith Simmons, managing partner for the firm, described the decision as a move toward greater efficiency.
“We’re just trying to become even more cost-effective and more efficiently staffed,” Simmons said.
Bass Berry & Sims also is delaying the date for 10 attorneys who had been due to start work Sept. 1.
“We’ve asked them to wait until January,” Simmons said. “That affects two (attorneys) in Memphis. We have also already determined we’re not going to do associate raises this September. We’ll just wait and see how the marketplace reacts to all that’s going on right now.”
Meanwhile, Newport Television – the parent company of the WPTY (Channel 24) and WLMT (Channel 30) television stations in Memphis – has mandated the company’s employees must take 10 days of unpaid leave through the end of 2009.
Details about how the employee furloughs would work weren’t immediately available. But The Daily News confirmed the local WPTY/WLMT stations are included in the round of furloughs, and that all employees would be affected.
The most recent employee headcount available for the stations was about 160 at year-end. Bass Berry & Sims reported more than 200.
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