Associates Happiest With Wachtell Pay, Which is on the Hefty Side

Associates

Associates Happiest With Wachtell Pay, Which is on the Hefty Side

Posted Aug 6, 2008, 07:59 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Midlevel associates are most satisfied with their compensation at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which paid huge bonuses last winter ranging from $175,000 to $215,000. That compares to median New York bonuses of $55,000 to $80,000.

Midlevel associates at the firm, asked to rate their satisfaction with compensation on a 1-to-5 scale, gave the law firm a score of 4.92, according to chart published by Am Law Daily. In addition to bonuses, paychecks for associates there ranged from $175,000 for third-years to $215,000 to fifth-years.

Overall, the average satisfaction with compensation was 4.04 one a 1-to-5 scale, the Am Law Daily reports. The American Lawyer survey of more than 7,200 midlevel associates found that large New York law firms froze pay for midlevel associates this year, while big firms in several other cities matched New York paychecks by giving their midlevels raises of about 10 percent.

After Wachtell, midlevel associates were most satisfied with their compensation at Los Angeles-based Irell & Manella, New York City-based McKee Nelson, Boston-based Nutter McClennen & Fish, and Boston-based Ropes & Gray. Most paid salaries ranging from $185,000 to $230,000, the median in New York. (Nutter, which is not one of the top 200 law firms, was not listed on the American Lawyer pay chart.)

Scoring lowest for compensation satisfaction was Columbus, Ohio-based Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, with a score of 2.83. Its overall satisfaction rating was also the second-worst in the survey, right behind Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, which has laid off 131 lawyers this year.

The survey found that associate satisfaction with pay increased by only 1 percent, even as firms with differing profit margins have rushed to match each other in associate pay, the American Lawyer reports in a separate story.

The article says interviewing students have little information to distinguish law firms and rely on compensation as a guide. As associates became dissatisfied with the grind of law firm life, “bonuses or small differences in salary take on an outsize psychological importance,” the story says.

Another frustration is the diminished prospect for making partner. “We’re like pro athletes,” a Jenner & Block midlevel associate told American Lawyer. “Only a few will make equity partner, and [most] will have a limited amount of time at a big firm.”

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Posted by CAF - 1 month, 1 day, 17 hours, 22 minutes ago

Who’d actually be upset about making over $300K per year? Of course the surveyed people were happy.
Posted by Bill - 4 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 24 minutes ago

Yeah!!!! More inane crap from the ABA Journal!!!! Hey guys, how about a story on the lack for jobs for new grads?
Posted by no kidding - 4 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 22 minutes ago

Another newsflash from ABA Journal: Employees like getting paid a lot. Is this really surprising?
Posted by DCEsq. - 4 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 19 minutes ago

I have noticed a subtle shift towards the use of the rather euphemistic term “compensation” when it comes to reporting on, essentially, money for lawyers at big firms. In the article above, “paycheck” and “bonus paycheck” can do just nicely in place of “compensation.” Although compensation may encompass greater forms of benefits, such as insurance or flexible work schedules, there is no mention of such benefits. This is not surprising, however, given that big law firms, as the Captains of Industry that they are, comandeer the terms of debate today, much as a presidential administration may comandeer what reporters see and write.
Posted by Dan - 4 weeks, 2 days, 3 hours, 2 minutes ago

Wow, what investigative reporting! In other “news”, bears like to eat salmon, the pope is Catholic, and Angelina Jolie is a woman! How do you ever find out this amazing and unpredictable news, ABA journal???
Posted by newsflash! - 4 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 58 minutes ago

Someone nominate this for a Pulitzer. It’ll come down to this story and the one that confirms that water is wet!

Seriously, what. the. hell? Why waste space stating the obvious?
Posted by Marianna - 4 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 53 minutes ago

Why doesn’t the ABA report on real news? How about discussions about how law schools lie on their employment stats, charge outrageous tuitions, and lead their graduates into jobs that offer “compensation” less than that of an illegal day laborer. Oh, I forgot, that would involve real reporting and journalism; this is nothing more than a propaganda rag.
Posted by R - 4 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 40 minutes ago

Was anyone unhappy because they felt they were being paid way, WAY too much? That it’s obscene, the amounts of money these firms are throwing at people only a couple years out of law school?

No? Didn’t think so.
Posted by GIGS - 4 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 26 minutes ago

The ABA does not represent the average lawyer. Apparently, they primarily represent Wachtell associates.
Posted by Doneil - 4 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 8 minutes ago

The level of pay at many of these law firms is unbelievable. We typically see industry trying to make less expensive products, but we never see law firms trying to undercut the competition on price. Is there some sort of conspiracy here to hijack the American consumer or American business in need of legal help? We need to open up a Law-Mart to offer cheaper legal services in hopes of restoring fair pricing to the legal profession.
Posted by Anthony McManus - 4 weeks, 2 days, 3 minutes ago

bonuses of that size means only one thing:

the firm is billing too much for its services. It’s time to give the clients a break.....
Posted by RB - 4 weeks, 1 day, 23 hours, 53 minutes ago

I second the call for a report on the lack of jobs for new grads and the deceptive employment stats published by law schools that cover this up.
Posted by jdjiver124 - 4 weeks, 1 day, 23 hours, 49 minutes ago

The sad thing is that the woman who wrote this groundbreaking piece of investigative journalism gets paid more money than I do.
Posted by Lucifer - 4 weeks, 1 day, 23 hours, 22 minutes ago

#6 is dead on. Glutted market, more schools being accredited, tuition skyrocketing and bogus numbers being spewed by useless career services offices. These are the relevant issues to the 90% of the profession NOT in big law.
Posted by Legal Douche - 4 weeks, 1 day, 22 hours, 20 minutes ago

My heart bleeds for all of us, really. But, as the saying goes, caveat emptor…
Posted by Lucifer - 4 weeks, 1 day, 22 hours, 2 minutes ago

There’s another saying “fraudulent misrepresentation”...the schools are cooking the books in ways that would make a Cayman Island banker jealous.
Posted by that is it - 4 weeks, 1 day, 21 hours, 57 minutes ago

This article does it. I have my ABA dues statement on my desk and was going to give it to my firm to pay, but no.

You morons get no more of my money.

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