Lean Times Get Leaner for Lawyers : Many legal firms have reduced their payrolls. Some have closed altogether. Everyone, from attorneys to support staff, is feeling the crunch.

Six months ago, Westside lawyers were saying they couldn’t imagine things getting any worse.

Well, things have gotten worse--and not only for lawyers, but for all white-collar professionals in the service-oriented businesses that used to fuel the area’s powerful economic engine.

Of all the service industries, the once-mighty law firms had perhaps the farthest to fall, and fall they have since the recession struck more than a year ago. Sachs & Phelps is out of business. Gendel Raskoff Shapiro & Quittner has closed. And Fried King Holmes & August has also closed, although a few of the partners have set up a smaller firm.

The 90 or so lawyers put out on the street by the recent closing of these firms have a lot of company. Other law firms have also taken down their shingles since last summer. And it seems that virtually none of the rest, no matter what their specialty, have escaped layoffs, hiring freezes and Draconian budget cuts.

With the slowdown in their bread-and-butter activities, especially real estate brokering, many firms have had to sublet space in their posh Century City towers just to pay the rent.

“The recession became far more effective in the last eight months,� wisecracked Louis B. Fox, executive director of the Beverly Hills Bar Assn. “It has had a devastating effect, and it may get worse.�

“Everyone’s feeling it,� said Kevin McShane, who runs a solo practice. “No one wants to spend money on lawyers, or pay them afterward.�

Even before “L.A. Law� glorified the local legal scene for millions of TV viewers, the Westside was a mecca for ambitious young lawyers from around the nation. Besides all the dynamic real estate and financial transactions to be negotiated, there was plenty of room for an up-and-comer in the entertainment industry.

But all that has changed. Now the young go-getters are competing with seasoned pros who have 10 years of litigation and transactional work under their belts and who are willing--even desperate--to work for cheap.

Jack Giarraputo was one of those young lawyers drawn to Los Angeles. But he came just as the ax was falling on the local legal economy.

After majoring in accounting and international business at New York University, he graduated in the top third of his class at Fordham Law School last year. After filing away dozens of rejection letters, he came to Los Angeles in the summer to look for work.

“I expected to earn $80,000 when I got out here,� said Giarraputo, 25, “but I set my sights lower, down to $40,000. Now I can’t even get a job delivering mail for $250 a week.�

Unable to find legal work, Giarraputo says he is now trying to find a job in the mail room of a talent agency, or as a gofer for a film director. He’s had no luck there, either.

“One guy told me he’s gotten so many resumes that his fax machine broke--more than 200.�

Much of the misery has been heaped on the legal support staff, displacing workers who have decades of experience, such as Elaine Bergman.

Recently, Bergman sat outside the Beverly Hills Municipal Courthouse with a sign saying she was an experienced legal secretary who needed work. She has since found a job, but her new boss has put her on a 90-day trial basis. According to Bergman, her new boss knows he can work her hard, since there are many other legal secretaries out there whom he can hire if she doesn’t strike his fancy.

“It used to be one legal secretary for every partner,� Bergman said. “Now it’s one secretary for every partner and two associates.�

The Beverly Hills Bar Assn. runs its own employment agency for legal secretaries and support staff, and Fox says that business is off one-third compared with last year.

“I think the entire economy is worse than ever,� said Tony Barash, the association’s president-elect, and a partner in the firm of Barash & Hill.

“The ‘80s were our salad days. I don’t think we’ll be seeing that again soon.�