Lawyer Pay

Average Starting Pay for Law Grads Is on Downward Shift; Drop Is Largest for Law Firm Jobs

Starting pay is down for 2010 law graduates, and the drop is greatest for law firm jobs. Median starting pay dropped by nearly 13 percent for all jobs and by 20 percent for law firm positions, according to NALP, which calls itself the association for legal professionals. The national median…

Jul 6, 2011 12:51 PM CDT

Allen & Overy ‘Quite Pleased’ with $1.87B Revenue Record

Boosted by a new Australia practice, London-based Allen & Overy saw its gross revenue rise to a record $1.87 billion in the fiscal year that ended at the end of April 2011. The magic circle firm is “quite pleased” with the year’s financial results, managing partner Wim Dejonghe tells the…

Jul 5, 2011 11:39 PM CDT

In Era of ‘Superstar Megarainmaker,’ Law Firms Show Top Partners the Money to Lure Them Elsewhere

A decade ago, a top business producer at a major law firm might earn five times what the average partner was paid. Today, a heavy hitter might make 10 times as much, as law firms open their checkbooks to pay top partners top dollar, especially when they are part of…

Jul 5, 2011 7:31 PM CDT

Pay Freezes Prompt More Judges to Leave Bench, Go Back to Practice

The number of judges leaving the bench because of a growing pay gap is increasing nationwide, but especially in New York, where nearly 1 in 10 judges are leaving each year to go into private practice. In New York, judges haven’t had a pay raise in 10 years, ever widening…

Jul 5, 2011 10:45 AM CDT

Law Job Stagnation May Have Started Before the Recession—And It May Be a Sign of Lasting Change

The legal profession is undergoing a massive structural shift—one that will leave it dramatically transformed in the coming years.

Jul 1, 2011 9:40 AM CDT

Study Finds a Lawyer Surplus in Nearly Every State; DC Has a Deficit

All but two states and the District of Columbia have an oversupply of lawyers, according to a consulting company’s calculations. Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. compared the number of people who passed the bar exam in each state in 2009 with the estimated number of lawyer job openings in those states,…

Jun 28, 2011 12:23 PM CDT

Heiress Huguette Clark’s Will Leaves $500K to Her Lawyer

A wealthy heiress who died last month in New York at age 104 left $500,000 of her estimated $400 million fortune to her attorney of 15 years in the will he drafted for her six years ago. Huguette Clark also left $500,000 to her accountant, Reuters reported. She had no…

Jun 23, 2011 6:32 PM CDT

Ex-IRS Commissioner Links Financial Crisis to Lawyers, Says Privilege and Pay Part of the Problem

The basis for the financial crisis is still being analyzed, but a former commissioner for the Internal Revenue Service suggests tax and corporate lawyers may have been partly to blame. In an op-ed for the New York Times, former IRS commissioner Mark Everson points to law’s evolution as a business.…

Jun 20, 2011 1:28 PM CDT

Lawyers Make Up 6.2 Percent of the Nation’s Highest Earners

The ranks of the nation’s highest earners—the .1 percent of Americans who make $1.7 million or more—are dominated by executives, managers and supervisors, but lawyers are also well-represented. Forty-one percent of the top earners are executives and managers at nonfinancial companies, and 18 percent are managers at financial firms or…

Jun 20, 2011 11:45 AM CDT

Exodus of Prosecutors Slows Case Disposition in Fulton County, Ga.; DA Blames $56K Starting Pay

Nearly a fifth of the assistant prosecutors in the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney’s office have left so far this year, in moves some attributed to what the newspaper describes as the office’s “micromanagement style” and others said they made to advance their careers. DA Paul Howard points to the…

Jun 16, 2011 9:00 PM CDT

Overpaid? 4,300 Government Lawyers Make More Money than Governors, Report Says

A senator who wants to cut the pay of federal employees to reduce the deficit has gathered some ammunition with a new report on the pay of lawyers and others who work for the government. According to statistics requested by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., about 77,000 federal employees made more…

Jun 2, 2011 11:50 AM CDT

Trustee Picard Will Be ‘Richer Than Madoff’ Once Legal Bills are Paid, Investor Lawyer Says

A lawyer for 800 investors defrauded in Bernie Madoff’s stunning Ponzi scheme complains that trustee Irving Picard will be “richer than Madoff” once his law firm’s legal bills are paid. Attorney Helen Chaitman, who is contesting the latest $44 million bill from Baker & Hostetler, says Picard himself is getting…

May 25, 2011 6:01 PM CDT

Now Hiring: SEC Has Glut of Attorney Jobs, Turns to Recruiter for Help

With a glut of attorney jobs to fill before its fiscal year comes to an end in September, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has turned to a recruiter for help. Futurestep will help the federal enforcement agency find applicants for positions ranging from entry-level attorney advisers, earning an annual…

May 25, 2011 12:25 AM CDT

Will Career Associate Programs Cause Resentment? At Orrick, Lawyers Cite the Benefits

David Perry, a 2009 Northwestern law grad, has $150,000 in law school debt and a lower paying career associate job at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Perry, 37, tells the New York Times he’s satisfied. He landed the job after trying without success to find public service work. Now he says…

May 24, 2011 11:52 AM CDT

Ex-Ropes & Gray Lawyer Says Pay Jealousy Spurred His Insider Trading Tips

A former Ropes & Gray lawyer said Thursday that he provided tips in an insider trading scheme because he was jealous of Wall Street salaries. The now disbarred lawyer, 34-year-old Brien Santarlas, testified in the trial of Zvi Goffer, a former trader in the Galleon Group hedge fund founded by…

May 20, 2011 11:39 AM CDT