Associates

Punching the Clock

Firms crack down on start times, but is it a “generational” thing?

Aug 1, 2007 8:48 AM CDT

Career Coach Aids Anxious Associates

Hey, law firm associates: Are you unhappy with your job? Looking for an in-house gig? Worried about making partner? Just trying to find a way to have a home life as well as a work life? No problem–if you work at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. The 1,200-lawyer firm has…

Jul 30, 2007 11:59 PM CDT

NJ Firm Bows Head re Unadmitted Atty

In a rare sanction of a law firm that names no individual partner names, the New Jersey Supreme Court has reprimanded Newark-based Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross for allowing an associate not admitted to the state bar to work on transactional matters for seven years. There are conflicting accounts of…

Jul 27, 2007 12:03 AM CDT

$3,100 a Week for Summer Associates

Big Washington, D.C., law firms are paying summer associates as much as $3,100 a week while offering plentiful perks. The Washington Post writes about a dinner with a “Masters of the Universe ambience” atop the Kennedy Center, attended by summer associates at Steptoe & Johnson. Competition for top law grads…

Jul 24, 2007 4:45 PM CDT

Texas Trend: $160 K Starting Pay

It didn’t take long for a third Texas law firm to raise pay for beginning associates to $160,000. Locke Liddell & Sapp announced the pay hike will take effect on Aug. 1, Texas Lawyer reports. Managing partner Jerry Clements said the move is intended to help the firm “remain a…

Jul 23, 2007 2:53 PM CDT

Second Texas Firm Hikes Associate Pay

A second Texas law firm has raised salaries for new associates to $160,000. Houston-based Andrews Kurth announced the pay increase yesterday, a day after Vinson & Elkins hiked associate pay, Texas Lawyer reports. Vinson & Elkins adopted a unique pay structure. Associates get raises every year, but the amount of…

Jul 20, 2007 12:32 PM CDT

V&E Matches N.Y. Associate Pay

Vinson & Elkins is the first Texas law firm to announce it will increase pay for new associates to $160,000 a year, matching big firms on the coasts. Associates get raises every year after that, but the amount of the pay hike will be lower after the third year if…

Jul 19, 2007 12:32 PM CDT

‘Golden Handcuffs’ Chain Attys to Desks

If they could afford to, they’d leave the legal profession. That’s what one in five law firm partners and nearly one in three associates surveyed by a British legal publication recently said. Flush with profits from a booming market in mergers and acquisitions, some of London’s biggest and most highly…

Jul 2, 2007 9:08 PM CDT

Who Needs Harvard?

Grads from lower-ranked law schools can get to the big firms, too

Jul 1, 2007 11:56 PM CDT

Howrey’s ‘Bold Move’: Merit Pay

Associates at Howrey will get raises based on performance rather than seniority. The 630-lawyer firm says it will eliminate its lockstep compensation system beginning next year, the Recorder reports. The result is that some associates will achieve partner more quickly, and others more slowly, according to Henry Bunsow, managing partner…

Jun 29, 2007 12:31 PM CDT

Firm Tops in N.Y. Associate Satisfaction

Patterson Belknap Webb has earned seventh place on American Lawyer’s A-List for associate satisfaction, the highest of any New York law firm. At the same time, the firm scored 199 out of 200 points on pro bono. Every lawyer has volunteered for pro bono or public service work since 2004,…

Jun 28, 2007 12:43 PM CDT

Two-Tier Associate Pay at Thelen

Only the biggest-billing associates will make $160,000 a year at one California law firm. Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner will pay that amount to new associates who bill at least 2,000 hours a year, and $145,000 to those who work less, according to the Recorder. “We wanted a compensation…

Jun 25, 2007 12:28 PM CDT

Boston Firms Hike Associate Pay

Several Boston law firms will pay new associates $160,000, matching starting pay at big firms in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The National Law Journal lists about a dozen firms that have announced the pay hike for Boston associates. Among them is Foley Hoag. Tom Block, the firm’s chief…

Jun 8, 2007 1:54 PM CDT

Diversity Still Elusive Goal for Law Firms

Once excluded from many careers in the legal profession, members of racial minority groups are now welcome to practice at law firms in Wisconsin, and throughout the nation. But they still represent only a tiny fraction of those practicing at major firms, and more still needs to be done to…

Jun 6, 2007 9:03 PM CDT

Bingham Offers Associate Buyouts

Bingham McCutchen is paying buyouts to several associates at its San Francisco office,reportedly in response to a slowdown in commercial litigation. Four associates left the firm and three others transferred to part-time, contract attorney status, the Recorder reports. The move comes as the Boston-based firm raised associate pay to $160,000…

Jun 6, 2007 12:32 PM CDT