What America’s Lawyers Earn

It’s no secret that the business of practicing law has changed—and continues to change—in ways that are both subtle and dramatic. We’ve covered that transformation over the years in these pages: technology-driven efficiencies, niche practices developed around social change, new challenges to the profession dictated by both gut-wrenching recession and…

Mar 1, 2011 12:00 PM CST

10 Surprising Legal Markets

Here are smaller legal markets that pay big-city bucks

Mar 1, 2011 11:59 AM CST

Search Lawyer Wage Data for Your County

Mar 1, 2011 11:55 AM CST

Bar Survey Says Half of Responding Lawyers Saw Pay Cut, Nearly 20% Are Mulling Career Changes

Pay freezes, staff layoffs and reduced billing rates, as well as other signs of economic stress, are becoming commonplace in law practice, respondents to the latest Florida Bar survey say. And many are now mulling career changes ranging from a shift to another practice area or launching their own firm…

Mar 1, 2011 12:13 AM CST

Former Sonnenschein Partner Expects $2.1M Payday After Jury Says He Deserved More for Lockerbie Work

For a second time, a Superior Court jury in Washington, D.C., has ruled that a former partner of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal was undercompensated for his origination work concerning a case over the bombing of a Pan Am flight above Lockerbie, Scotland. And this time Douglas Rosenthal (no relation to…

Feb 28, 2011 10:15 PM CST

Fen-Phen Lawyer Should Be Disbarred, Disgorge $7.5M of His $20M Fee, Hearing Officer Suggests

Updated: Unlike three colleagues who worked on the fen-phen diet drug litigation, Stanley Chesley is still an active practitioner. But that could change, if attorney disciplinary authorities in Kentucky follow a hearing officer’s recommendations in a report today. Despite the prominent Ohio lawyer’s hitherto unblemished attorney disciplinary record, a former…

Feb 23, 2011 1:16 AM CST

Cahill Revenue Soars 20% to $323M, PPP Rockets 27% to $3.23M, Both All-Time Records

Recession? What recession? Cahill Gordon & Reindel has reported a record-breaking year of stratospheric profits in 2010. Revenue soared 20 percent to $323.6 million and profit per partner rocketed 27 percent to $3.23 million, reports the Am Law Daily. Both figures are all-time highs for the New York-based firm. Known…

Feb 18, 2011 9:10 PM CST

‘Revolution of Rising Expectations’ Has Hurt Howrey, Where $600K PPP Was Once the Norm

Only a decade ago, Howrey had an average profit per partner of $600,000. But due to a “revolution of rising expectations” among BigLaw partners since then, rumors that the firm might fail to meet its PPP target of $940,000, providing perhaps only $750,000 to $850,000, on average, to its partners…

Feb 18, 2011 6:20 PM CST

Latham’s Gross Revenue Nears $2B Again, Up 6 Percent from 2009; PPP Nears $2M

Latham & Watkins income is on the upswing again. The firm today announced that its gross revenue for 2010 was $1.929 billion, reports the Am Law Daily. That represents an increase of almost 6 percent from 2009 and puts Latham back where it was in 2008, more or less. Meanwhile,…

Feb 17, 2011 9:43 PM CST

Law Firms Flaunt Profits with Spring Bonuses, Even as Partnership Remains Elusive

Several large law firms are paying associates spring bonuses, even as partnership is becoming even more difficult to attain. Law firms “have been tripping over each other” in their zeal for spring bonuses, the Careerist blog observes, citing reports in Above the Law and the Am Law Daily. “I don’t…

Feb 10, 2011 1:20 PM CST

Report: Yoss Firm Is Struggling After Admittedly ‘Terrible’ January, Has Laid Off Some Lawyers

After the suspension last year of its founding partner, Henry “Hank” Adorno, the Florida law firm now known simply as Yoss is struggling, the Am Law Daily reports. It had a “terrible” January, managing partner George Yoss told the Daily Business Review, explaining that the firm was two weeks late…

Feb 9, 2011 11:48 PM CST

Pay of $10M for Top Rainmaking Lawyers Creates Growing Morale Issues

Many law firms are reducing partner compensation so they can free up more money for superstars who in some cases earn as much as $10 million a year. Often the top earners are making eight to 10 times more than other partners, and it’s creating morale issues, the Wall Street…

Feb 8, 2011 12:36 PM CST

Calwalader Gross Dips for 4th Year, But PPP Is $2.39M; Akin Gump PPP Soars 10.4% to $1.6M

For the fourth year in a row, gross revenue at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft has dipped. Down 6 percent, to $429.5 million, in 2010, it has dropped by 27 percent since 2007, when it was $587 million, reports the Am Law Daily. Nonetheless, profit per partner is a healthy $2.39…

Feb 8, 2011 1:14 AM CST

Has Downturn Provided ‘Protective Cover’ to Top Equity Partners?

The economic downturn that left new law school graduates with dismal job prospects appears to be benefiting equity partners, especially those at the top. Now there are fewer lawyers doing more work, and it’s helping boost partner pay, former Kirkland & Ellis partner Steven Harper writes in a column for…

Feb 7, 2011 6:56 PM CST

SEC Officials During Time of Madoff Swindle Now Have Lucrative BigLaw Jobs

Half a dozen officials who worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission at a time when Bernard Madoff’s multi-billion-dollar swindle of investors was ongoing have moved on to new jobs. Instead of earning approximately $200,000 a year working for the federal watchdog agency they’re now making up to $2 million…

Feb 7, 2011 5:27 PM CST