Lawyer Pay

Nutter McClennen No. 1 in Summer Associates Survey

Summer associates participating in an American Lawyer survey gave the best grades to law firms that emphasized training and mentoring and offered exciting work. Despite the emphasis on personal attention, clerks still took home big paychecks and were treated to spectacular outings, American Lawyer reports. Summer associates made an average…

Nov 19, 2007 11:54 AM CST

Two More U.K. Law Firms Pay Special Bonuses Up to $50K

Two more Magic Circle law firms have announced they will be matching their New York competitors by paying big special bonuses to their Big Apple associates. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy will pay special bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000, Legal Week reports. The cash is in addition…

Nov 16, 2007 1:21 PM CST

Reed Smith to U.K. Attys: Play By Rules for ‘Partner’ Pay

Eyebrows apparently are being raised among the U.K. nonequity partners of Pittsburgh-based Reed Smith over the U.S. firm’s compensation methodology. Reed Smith introduced salaried partners at its British merger match, Richards Butler, at the beginning of this year to a new pay scheme in which 15 percent of their pay…

Nov 16, 2007 12:25 AM CST

Survey Says Income Gap Grows in ‘Overwhelmingly Male’ BigLaw

A survey by the National Association of Women Lawyers paints a gloomy picture of the legal profession, as far as the advancement of female attorneys at the country’s 200 largest law firms is concerned. “Among its findings, the survey shows that there is a growing income gap between men and…

Nov 15, 2007 11:43 PM CST

Should Law Firm Leaders Get CEO Pay?

At a time when major law firms are increasingly like the big corporations that they represent as clients, there’s still one noteworthy difference between the two: The individuals in charge of managing big corporations are paid considerably more. While there is some pressure for law firms to up the ante…

Nov 14, 2007 6:40 PM CST

Hollywood Outsourcing Higher-End Legal Work to India

Even with the millions that a successful movie can make, Hollywood producers are watching their legal costs. So, instead of having high-priced U.S. law firms handle all of their entertainment matters, some reportedly are starting to send some relatively high-end legal work to attorneys in India. While outsourcing “back office”…

Nov 12, 2007 9:15 PM CST

‘Attorney at Blah’: JD Earns Extra $20/Hour in Doc Review

CORRECTED: The job is similar, but the pay is different: temp work, in something akin to document review, without a law degree, is dull, thankless work that earns $10 an hour. With a juris doctor degree and a bar admission, temp work brings in $35 an hour–enough to earn a…

Nov 9, 2007 10:44 PM CST

CA Firm Offers Lawyers Cushy Perks

A California law firm is offering its 80 lawyers free breakfasts, on-site massages and manicures, health club memberships and errand runs. Lawyer Stuart Liner came up with the idea after a conversation about work-life balance with a fellow partner last summer, the Recorder reports. Liner is founder of the Westwood…

Nov 9, 2007 1:57 PM CST

UK Law Firm Announces Special NY Associate Bonuses

A Britain-based law firm has joined the bonus bonanza. Clifford Chance will give its New York associates special bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000, Legal Week reports. The cash comes on top of regular associate bonuses of $30,000 to $65,000. Cravath, Swaine & Moore was the first law firm to…

Nov 8, 2007 11:20 AM CST

Apple Gives New GC $25M in Stock

Apple has granted its new general counsel Daniel Cooperman 133,000 shares of restricted stock valued at about $25 million. Cooperman was general counsel of Oracle before moving to Apple on Sept. 28. To lure Cooperman to Apple, the company not only offered him the sweet stock deal, it also recruited…

Nov 6, 2007 3:16 PM CST

Experts: Share-the-Spoils Model Better Than ‘Eat What You Kill’

Although an eat-what-you-kill approach to law practice has gained popularity in recent years, a share-the-spoils model is the better pathway to follow for future law firm success, experts say. Otherwise, according to Doug Moore of accountant Grant Thornton, the law firm “promotes stars and rainmakers, those who bring in the…

Nov 5, 2007 7:11 PM CST

Wal-Mart Refuses Law Firm Fee Hikes, Cites High Associate Salaries

Wal-Mart has issued a memo to its law firms announcing a “moratorium on across-the-board rate increases.” The memo says the retailer will consider only “reasonable, individual requests for rate increases for those attorneys in your firm who are performing at an exceptional level,” the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.).…

Nov 5, 2007 2:31 PM CST

Bonus Bonanza: More BigLaw Firms Up Ante; Will Salaries Rise, Too?

In a New York-centered bonus bonanza that observers say could signal an intent to raise salaries for the Big Apple’s best-paid associates as soon as January 2008, at least six more major law firms have jumped yesterday and today on the associate bonus bandwagon driven by Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s…

Nov 2, 2007 11:00 PM CDT

Atlanta Firm Holds Down Associate Pay—and Billables

A 136-lawyer Atlanta law firm is refusing to match the $145,000 annual starting salaries paid by the city’s other big firms. In past years, Arnall Golden Gregory had always matched pay, managing partner William Kitchens told the Fulton County Daily Report. But it will keep starting pay at $130,000 in…

Nov 2, 2007 6:08 PM CDT

Lacking Pay Raises, NY Judges Get More Benefits

New York judges, who have not had a pay raise since 1999, will be getting more cash in the form of better benefits. The judges will be allowed an extra $5,000 a year to reimburse them for uncovered medical costs and job-related expenses such as bar association dues, the New…

Nov 2, 2007 11:38 AM CDT