Legg Mason To Cut 250 Jobs In Baltimore Area

Layoffs will affect 30 percent of the local work force as money manager moves work to affiliates across the globe

Money manager Legg Mason Inc. said Monday that it will cut 250 jobs in the Baltimore area — 30 percent of its local work force — in an effort to boost profits by shipping the work to affiliates around the world.

Most of the layoffs will be achieved by shutting down the company's Owings Mills offices, with the rest of the job cuts at its brand-new building on the city's waterfront in Harbor East. The move will bring the company's Baltimore-area employment to about 550 — a drastic drop from just two years ago, when nearly 1,000 people worked here.

Legg Mason officials expect the layoffs will happen over the next six to 18 months and that investment operations, billing, accounting and similar back-office jobs will be affected. That work will be handled by affiliates elsewhere in the country and overseas "to take it closer to the client," Chief Executive Officer Mark Fetting said.

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