PE Law Report Quotes Robert Lian, Richard Rabin Extensively in Article on Workforce Management in a Recession

For its article “PE in a Recession: Prepare for Potentially Necessary Layoffs and an Exodus of Critical Talent (Part Three of Three),” Private Equity Law Report quoted Akin Gump labor and employment practice head Robert Lian and partner Richard Rabin. The article discusses how, with a recession possibly in the offing, fund managers can identify different workforce management issues to consider and pursue to prepare for potential layoffs while also retaining critical employees.

Among the topics covered are preparing for personnel changes (Lian notes, “Firms are probably still understaffed, so there will be a slack period before they eventually start to feel overstaffed and positioned to shed staff due to macro factors”), laying the framework for terminations (Rabin says, “If workforce reductions are necessary, it makes sense to evaluate which employees are not carrying their weight or adding tremendous value as the first place to perform any layoffs.”), and evaluating the overall cost structure of the firm (Lian says, “That involves looking at how an impending recession could impact the company’s cost structure and whether rightsizing the workforce is a way to deal with that.”).

To read the full article, click here.