While big U.S. law firms are shedding staff and smaller law firms in Suffolk County, many of which focus on real estate, are closing shop, many midsized firms on Long Island are staffing up in specialty areas that thrive in a bad economy.

Nationwide, the number of attorneys has decreased from 1,182,100 in June 2008 to 1,145,100 in June 2009, a drop of 37,000, or about 3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That includes nearly 5,000 from major law firms since January 2008.

For example, national law firm Thelen Reid dissolved in October 2008 and sent 80 of their attorneys to Nixon Peabody, which has offices in Jericho.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, one of Wall Street’s oldest law firms, cut more than 130 attorneys since last year and White & Case laid off almost 280 attorneys.

But then there’s the likes of Long Island’s Rivkin Radler and Meyer Suozzi English and Klein, which found themselves needing attorneys.

“We are in the growing category,” said Bill Savino, managing partner of Rivkin Radler in Uniondale, which has about 150 attorneys spread across offices in Manhattan, New Jersey and Long Island. “From the beginning of the year we have hired six or seven new lawyers and we are looking to hire maybe two more,” mainly in the firm’s litigation department.

Employment numbers for legal services from the New York State Department of Labor show that on Long Island, staffing has remained relatively stable.

Local employment for legal services was up by 300 jobs from May to June to 18,300, a 1.6 percent increase, but still down 300 jobs from June 2008 when there were 18,600 jobs, the New York State Department of Labor reported. That’s also down from the 19,282 attorneys in Nassau and Suffolk counties in 2006, the last year for which the U.S. Census Bureau has statistics.

At Garden City’s Meyer Suozzi, managing attorney Lois Schlissel said the firm realized last year that it needed to boost its bankruptcy practice to deal with the rising demand. She said they added nine bankruptcy attorneys from a boutique firm. At the same time, the trusts and estates practice group has remained stagnant.

But the firm also hired two for real estate.

“We know it seems a bit counterintuitive,” Schlissel said, since the real estate market has been particularly hard hit by the recession.

She said the real estate attorneys were hired to work on a large commercial foreclosure. The firm is representing the receiver of the foreclosed property, which has about 50 tenants.

“All of those leases have to be amended, renegotiated or reviewed,” she said. “That is an enormous amount of work.”

She added that midsized firms such as Meyer Suozzi, which now has about 65 attorneys, compared to about 50 a year ago, and Rivkin Radler, are thriving because of their ability to perform a wide variety of legal tasks with the same quality as a big Manhattan firm but at a better price.

While small firms focusing on a practice area that underperforms during a recession – corporate mergers and acquisitions, for example – tend to struggle, some small local firms are hiring as well.

Joe Campolo, one of the founders of Campolo, Middleton & Associates in Bohemia, said that firm started out with just two attorneys in April 2008. In the past 15 months, the firm has grown to more than seven attorneys and 14 total staff members.

“We’ve added people so that the bigger companies can use us at a lower price point,” Campolo said. “Smaller firms like us are a great cost alternative to companies using bigger firms. Everyone is looking to cut costs and if you can get the same service at a lower price, you’re going to want to use it.”

He said the firm specializes in corporate technology, commercial litigation, trusts and estates and employment law.

Campolo, who previously worked at larger Long Island law firms Certilman Balin and Farrell Fritz, said his expertise as a former in-house counsel for a technology company gives the firm an upper hand in recruiting clients.

“A year and a half ago, it was just two lawyers and two secretaries here,” Campolo said. “Now it seems like every other week we’re hiring new people.”

Other small firms also are doing some hiring.

Frank Scahill of Picciano and Scahill in Westbury added two attorneys to their staff of 20 this year. The bulk of the firm’s practice is defending insurance companies and specifically, no-fault litigation in New York state.

He said the reason the firm is able to grow while others that also specialize in insurance defense are reducing staff is because of the firm’s 85 percent victory rate in trials.

“Thankfully we are able to be looked upon by our clients as a law firm that gets results,” he said.