Lawyer Pay

Holland & Knight Cuts Associate Pay by Up to 10 Percent

Holland & Knight is cutting associate pay, but not everyone will see a pay cut. The pay cuts will average about 7 percent, but the amounts will vary, the Daily Business Review reports. As many as 50 South Florida associates will see pay cuts as high as 10 percent, the…

Jul 31, 2009 11:35 AM CDT

Women Partners Say They’re Still Forced into Support Roles at Firms #ABAChicago

While some law firms are leading the charge to promote women and minority partners to management positions, others remain dominated by the “white man’s voice,” and gender bias that keep these lawyers out of compensation discussions and away from origination credit, Pfizer Inc. general counsel Amy Schulman said today at…

Jul 30, 2009 8:27 PM CDT

Will ‘Economic Edifice’ of BigLaw Crumble in the Recession?

In the boom times, big law firms reaped big fees and relentlessly expanded, pushing the average take home pay for partners to a million dollars or more. These firms had fallen prey “to the same strain of hubris that infected their clients,” legal journalist Douglas McCollam writes in an opinion…

Jul 30, 2009 1:37 PM CDT

UK Bar Group to Warn Students: A Legal Career Is Risky

The bar group representing solicitors in England and Wales is launching a new campaign to warn would-be lawyers that they could end up jobless and in debt. The Law Society plans to stress the competition for jobs and the high costs of legal training, according to Legal Week and the…

Jul 29, 2009 3:43 PM CDT

Morris Manning Cuts Associate Pay Up to 15%, Cites ‘Readjustment’ of Salary Market

Atlanta’s Morris, Manning & Martin is the latest firm to cut associate pay in response to the country’s economic downturn. Starting Aug. 1, the firm’s pay for associates in its real estate, lending and tax groups will drop by 15 percent. Pay for other associates will drop by 10 percent,…

Jul 28, 2009 11:45 AM CDT

University of California Law Profs to See Pay Cut of Up to 10 Percent

University of California law professors are facing pay cuts of 4 percent to 10 percent under a new furlough plan that affects faculty and staff at all UC schools beginning Sept. 1. The pay cuts and furlough days depend on faculty salaries, which top out at $240,000, the National Law…

Jul 27, 2009 3:42 PM CDT

Contract Lawyer Markups Turn Securities Suits into ATMs, Prof Says

A law professor says markups on work done by contract lawyers are turning securities class actions into ATMs for plaintiffs firms. Lester Brickman, a professor at Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo law school, says the plaintiffs firms devote more lawyer time to coding and classifying discovery evidence than do the…

Jul 24, 2009 3:30 PM CDT

Temporary 10% Pay Cut at Troutman Is Based on Individual Performance

Troutman Sanders has confirmed a 10 percent cut in what the law firm describes as “the total amount of associate pay that was budgeted for Aug. 1-Dec. 31, 2009.” However, reductions in associate compensation will be determined based on individual performance evaluations rather than across the board, the law firm…

Jul 22, 2009 6:22 PM CDT

Akerman Senterfitt Is Latest Firm to Cut Pay by 10 Percent

Florida-based Akerman Senterfitt has cut associate pay by 10 percent in an effort to avoid layoffs, a source tells a legal publication. “The thought process was to preserve associate jobs,” the source told the Daily Business Review. Another source said job cuts may have to be made if the economy…

Jul 22, 2009 4:55 PM CDT

Educator Wonders If He’d Be Happier as His Twin, a High-Paid Lawyer

The differences between a Virginia educator and his brother, a partner at a Manhattan law firm, are partly a matter of paychecks. Emmet Rosenfeld, dean of students at the Congressional Schools of Virginia, recently cracked $100,000 a year, when his wife’s pay is counted, he writes in the Washington Post.…

Jul 21, 2009 4:58 PM CDT

GCs at Top Companies Averaged $1.8M in Pay and Bonuses Last Year

General counsel at the nation’s top companies earned $1.8 million in pay and bonuses last year on average, an increase of 2.6 percent. The breakdown, tallied by Corporate Counsel: The average bonus was $1.16 million, an increase of less than 1 percent, and the average salary was $596,393, an increase…

Jul 21, 2009 1:01 PM CDT

E-Mail Leaks About Layoffs Prompt Law Firms to Set New PR Course

When Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt started informing those affected that it was laying off 19 of its 400 employees and cut associate pay last month, it took less than an hour for the news to leak to the legal media. A mere 41 minutes later, the Portland, Ore.-based law firm…

Jul 20, 2009 4:06 PM CDT

Weil Gotshal Asks Some Summer Associates to Defer Start Date to 2012

Updated: Being one of the biggest names in corporate bankruptcy practice hasn’t prevented Weil Gotshal & Manges from having to deal with some fallout from the dismal economy. Because junior associate classes are large and attrition has dropped to an unusual low, the firm continues to have an over-supply of…

Jul 17, 2009 7:16 PM CDT

A Dean’s Warning for Optimistic Law Students: Big Pay Goes to Small Number

Incoming University of Miami law dean thinks some law students need a dose of reality. Partly toward that end, she sent letters to incoming law students encouraging them to defer admission for a year. White told the Daily Business Review she wanted to encourage students to carefully consider the kinds…

Jul 17, 2009 6:45 PM CDT

Gaming Lawyers Get Share of Casino Venture for Legal Work

Two Atlantic City gaming lawyers are getting paid for their legal work on a proposed Pennsylvania slots parlor with a share of the project if it wins a license. Lawyers John Donnelly and Michael Sklar are doing legal work for the majority owner of the casino project, CMS Fund Advisers…

Jul 16, 2009 2:01 PM CDT