Lawyer Pay

Pensions Howling at The Door

WolfBlock dissolution underlines the danger

Jun 2, 2009 2:00 AM CDT

How Low Will Pay Go?

Firms lowering associate salaries may be trendsetters, not renegades

Jun 2, 2009 1:40 AM CDT

Despite Salary Freeze, D.C. Lawyer Pockets More Money—Selling Mary Kay

A frustrated Washington, D.C., lawyer may not be driving a pink Cadillac, but she is pocketing an extra $400 to $500 a month selling Mary Kay cosmetics. The unidentified lawyer owes $150,000 in law student loans, but isn’t getting a pay raise to help out from her law firm, which…

Jun 1, 2009 2:18 PM CDT

McDermott Cuts Pay for Summer Associates to $135K

First-year associates at McDermott Will & Emery are still being paid a $160,000 annual salary. But the firm is paying less to summer associates this year, who will be compensated according to a prorated $135,000 annual salary, reports Above the Law, based on information from an unidentified law firm spokesperson.…

May 29, 2009 4:41 PM CDT

How In-House Counsel ‘Value’ Challenge is Changing One Law Firm

Some law firm leaders are eying a potential paradigm shift in major-firm legal practice with dread. Others are stepping forward to embrace it. Among the latter group is Gregg Melinson, the national marketing partner of Drinker Biddle & Reath. After the Association of Corporate Counsel issued its Value Challenge in…

May 29, 2009 12:46 AM CDT

Buying ‘Options’ on Associates Is a Bet Economy Will Improve

Law firms that are deferring start dates for incoming first-year associates but paying them substantial sums during the interim months are essentially buying options on these associates, points out an article in Human Resources Executive. Does that make sense financially? Yes, if you expect the economy to improve significantly, so…

May 28, 2009 7:42 PM CDT

Associate Pay Depends on Practice Area at Post & Schell

Some practice areas are clearly more lucrative than others. So if an intellectual property associate, for instance, is being billed out at a higher rate than a law school classmate down the hall at the same firm who does insurance defense work, shouldn’t the IP attorney make a higher salary?…

May 27, 2009 9:11 PM CDT

Next Calif. AG Will Make 18% Less Than Jerry Brown’s $184K

Across-the-board pay cuts for top officers of the state of California being made in the midst of a budget crisis include an 18 percent decrease for the next attorney general after Jerry Brown finishes his current term. Approved Wednesday by a 5-1 vote of the California Citizens Compensation Commission, the…

May 22, 2009 10:30 PM CDT

No Longer a ‘Prep School,’ Ballard Spahr Plans New Pay Model After Earlier Layoffs

Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll has learned some lessons from a disappointing period in which profits per equity partner plummeted from about $545,000, in 2007, to $415,000, in 2008. Among them: It was time to stop running the Philadelphia-based national law firm like a “prep school” and do some housecleaning…

May 22, 2009 8:21 PM CDT

Sweeping Sonnenschein Pay Plan Eliminates Lockstep, Offers ‘Flexibility’

Joining a few other major firms that have recently made similar announcements—and perhaps going beyond their programs—Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal has announced a sweeping plan to reconfigure the firm’s relationship with its associates. It includes but is not limited to across-the-board cuts, at least initially, in associate pay and a…

May 21, 2009 9:23 PM CDT

Fish Firm Defers 1/3 of Incoming Class, Tells 1/3 More to Look for Another Job

After layoffs earlier this month of 35 attorneys and 85 staff, a major intellectual property boutique is now extending the pain to its incoming class of new associates. About one third of its incoming first-years will start on time this fall, Fish & Richardson tells Above the Law in a…

May 21, 2009 6:46 PM CDT

Forced to Choose, Rutgers Adjunct Opts for Client Over Teaching Gig

Conflict-of-interest rules apply not only to lawyers in practice, but to law professors—including in-practice attorneys teaching only a single course, an adjunct professor at a state law school in New Jersey has learned to her dismay. So, forced to choose between a client and her $1,325-per-credit gig teaching an international…

May 20, 2009 9:09 PM CDT

Reed Smith Cuts Associate Pay 10%; New Hires Could Take Bigger Hit

Associates at Reed Smith will be seeing an across-the board 10 percent pay cut beginning July 1. The law firm says in an internal memo that global economic conditions, changing client demands “and the competitive landscape in the legal industry” have already forced reductions in partner pay. “Sound business operations”…

May 20, 2009 6:05 PM CDT

Pillsbury Defers 54 to 2010 and 2011, Offers $60K to Go Away

In yet another law firm response to the dismal economy, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman is deferring 54 members of its incoming class of new associates. And the firm is also offering $60,000 to incoming associates who opt to take the money and find work elsewhere, reports the Shark blog published…

May 18, 2009 8:54 PM CDT

‘Meganumbers’ Pay for Lawyers Is On the Wane, Recruiter Says

Even after the recession ends, lower pay for lawyers may continue to be the norm. Recruiter Jerome Kowalski of Kowalski & Associates tells the Legal Intelligencer that client pressures are among several factors depressing lawyer salaries, and the change is likely to be lasting. “These meganumbers in terms of compensation…

May 18, 2009 1:49 PM CDT