Lawyer Pay

25% of 2009 Grads in Temp Jobs; Few Actually Earn $72K Pay Median, NALP Says

NALP is sounding a cautionary note about new salary figures for 2009 law grads that show the median annual pay for those who were working full-time in all reported jobs was $72,000 and the average was $93,454. NALP, which calls itself the Association for Career Professionals, explains in a press…

Jul 23, 2010 1:21 PM CDT

New SEC Disclosure Rules Take Toll on GC Bonuses; Average Drops Below $1M

The total average cash bonus for general counsel at Fortune 500 companies has dropped by 18 percent, to below $1 million, and new SEC disclosure rules may be partly to blame. The average cash bonus, a combination of traditional bonuses and nonequity incentive compensation, is $947,781, Corporate Counsel reports. Traditional…

Jul 20, 2010 1:36 PM CDT

Goldman Sachs General Counsel Got $38.3M in Midst of 2008 Crisis

As general counsel of Goldman Sachs, Gregory Palm clearly has a very good income. Nor, some who know him say, does the Harvard Law School graduate—who grew up the son the a union electrician in upstate New York—live high on the hog. But as a financial crisis hit the global…

Jul 19, 2010 9:37 PM CDT

Who Really Won? Record $550M SEC Fine No Big Deal to Goldman Sachs, Says NY Times

Goldman Sachs agreed to pay a record-breaking $550 million fine as part of a settlement announced last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of charges that the bank misled investors when it offered mortgage-related securities that turned out to be toxic in a dismal real estate market. But…

Jul 19, 2010 8:53 PM CDT

Law Firms with 2 Tiers of Associates Pay 2nd Ranks Up to 50% Less

For years, a number of law firms have had two tiers of partners, often differentiating between equity and non-equity holders of the same job title. Now, in a new trend that is taking hold among some California law firms, there may be two ranks of associates. Paid as much as…

Jul 16, 2010 7:46 PM CDT

Meet ‘Judge Judy’ Sheindlin, Accidental Celebrity Paid $45M to Work 52 Days a Year

When Judith Sheindlin agreed in 1993 to allow a reporter for the Los Angeles Times to sit quietly in the back of the New York courtroom in which she worked as a $120,000-a-year judge on family law matters, she thought he planned to report on a case. Instead, he profiled…

Jul 14, 2010 8:33 PM CDT

City Lawyer Under Fire for Sending $15K/Month in Legal Support Work to Own Firm

The city attorney for Chattanooga, Tenn., is under fire, after a state auditor’s report criticized him for contracting out some $15,000 per month in secretarial and legal support work from his own private law firm. But city attorney Mike McMahan—backed by the Chattanooga mayor—said he had done nothing wrong and…

Jul 12, 2010 4:50 PM CDT

Lawyer Sues Firm for Overtime Pay, Seeks Class Action Status

A New York attorney has sued a well-known plaintiffs’ class action law firm at which he formerly was employed as a temporary worker, contending that he should have been paid time-and-a-half for additional hours after he put in a 40-hour week. In a federal lawsuit filed today in Manhattan, plaintiff…

Jul 7, 2010 11:24 PM CDT

Survey Finds ‘Deep Vein of Anger’ Among Women Partners Over Law Firm Pay Gap

What is being billed as a first-of-a-kind survey of female law firm partners has revealed a “deep vein of anger” over pay disparities. “A recent Census Bureau report revealed that the median income of women lawyers is only 74 percent of that of male lawyers. Unfortunately, what starts as a…

Jul 7, 2010 9:33 PM CDT

Rosenfeldt Takes 5th re Depo Questions About His Pay at Rothstein Law Firm

Stuart Rosenfeldt was a co-partner of Scott Rothstein in the now-shuttered Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler. But he essentially knew nothing about the South Florida law firm’s financial operations, Rosenfeldt said in a deposition today, according to the This Just In blog of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Paid $6 million in 2008…

Jul 2, 2010 10:06 PM CDT

Kagan Coverage Roundup: Day 3

Check back at ABAJournal.com throughout the day for news developments about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. Today’s news highlights included: Hearings provide primer on Legalese 101; ‘stare decisis’ is word of the day. (Associated Press) But Kagan’s cultural knowledge may be lacking re vampires and werewolves. (New York Times Arts…

Jul 1, 2010 12:00 AM CDT

73 Percent of In-House Lawyers Got Bonuses in Past Year, International Survey Says

Seventy-three percent of in-house lawyers around the globe got bonuses last year, and a third of them were higher than the year before, according to a new survey. Thirty-three percent of the lawyers surveyed said their bonuses were higher, about 40 percent said they were the same, and about 26…

Jun 18, 2010 12:08 PM CDT

ABA Urges Supreme Court to Accept Case on Lack of Judicial Pay Raises

The American Bar Association has filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to accept a case that contends lack of judicial pay raises amounts to a constitutional violation. The ABA filed the brief on Wednesday arguing that federal judicial pay is so low that it compromises judicial independence…

Jun 18, 2010 10:30 AM CDT

Judges Can Moonlight as Artists, Says Ethics Panel

An ethics panel has given the green light to New York judges who wish to alleviate the paucity of pay raises for the past 12 years by moonlighting as artists. So long as they retain a third party, such as an agent or publisher, to market their artistic efforts, they…

Jun 8, 2010 8:22 PM CDT

Ex-BigLaw Attorneys Profit at Smaller Firm via Flexible Fees & Eat-What-You-Kill Comp

A willingness to be flexible about hourly billing rates and an eat-what-you-kill compensation structure has proven profitable for former BigLaw attorneys now practicing in the “Philadelphia” office of Chamberlain Hrdlicka. The office, which actually is located in Conshohocken, Pa., in the Philadelphia suburbs, resulted from a parting of the ways…

Jun 7, 2010 6:12 PM CDT