Despite 'Relatively Good Start to 2009,' Venable Cuts Associate Pay By 8-9%
In an increasingly common BigLaw scenario, Venable has announced an across-the-board associate pay cut.
But in a unique twist, the firm is slicing 8 percent off most associate salaries, rather than implementing the 10 percent haircut that many major firms that have taken this approach have required, according to an internal Venable memo last night that is reprinted in an Above the Law post.
The starting salary for incoming first-year associates will be reduced a little more than 9 percent, from $160,000 to $145,000.
And partners apparently will, to a lesser extent, share associates’ pain: At the beginning of the year, their “profiles” were set 5 percent lower than the previous year’s earnings, the memo notes.
These reductions are prudent, it states, despite “a relatively good start to 2009,” and may be entirely made up, or at least mitigated, by increases in 2010 bonuses for as far high-performing attorneys are concerned, once the firm can see how the rest of the year shapes up.
The pay cuts take effect on July 11.
