NY is dying

Cravath is laying off attorneys. I have three friends at Cravath this summer. But I have yet to speak with them about the current buzz surrounding Cravath's response to the economic downturn (see here and here).

What is the world coming to when one of the NY's top 3 firm is going down the drain? There has been much banter about paradigm shift (i.e., NY is no longer the center of the world...ahhhhhh!). Assuming, for the moment, that there indeed is a paradigm shift, where is the shift moving to? China? I speak Chinese, so this would be a good thing. However, a paradigm shift to China seems unlikely in the short term.

Perhaps the paradigm is shifting coasts? Again, I don't think this is true either. The west coast is as much, if not more, dependant on the NY market as the rest of the world. The dearth of IPOs have caused many Silicon Valley firms, for example, to fire folks and restructure their practice groups.

So, once again, I ask: where is the paradigm shift moving to?

To be honest, I don't know. Love to hear people's thought on this. But my gut tells me that NY still has some fight in it before it throws in the white towel.