Dechert Chairman Takes a $1M Pay Cut
Dechert chairman Barton Winokur reportedly has revealed that he will reduce his partner draw by $1 million.
Winokur told of the self-imposed pay cut and said at a secret enclave of law firm leaders last month that other Dechert leaders were also taking similar hits, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Winokur has adopted other cost-cutting measures as well, laying off 92 lawyers and 62 staffers, pushing back associate start dates and prepaying expenses.
“This must have made at least a few other handsomely paid lawyers in the room fidget nervously with their silverware,” the story says. “After all, once word of this socially destabilizing giveback got out, could it be very long before hard-pressed Fortune 500 clients demanded the same of the other leaders of Big Law?”
Winokur won’t suffer too much. The firm’s highest paid partners earned nearly $8 million in 2006, the story points out, citing American Lawyer figures.
Another law firm cutting partner draws is Dewey & LeBoeuf, which chopped the pay of 66 partners by as much as 80 percent.
