Skaddenfreude: Seyfarth Shaw Leaves the List of Shame

onMarch 28, 2007 at 3:58 PM

Hey, guess what? Seyfarth Shaw held some “focus groups” with its associates, and the focus groups told them: WE WANT MORE MONEY!!!
And Seyfarth Shaw, despite prior expressions of reluctance, decided to go along. Their memo, announcing associate pay raises, appears after the jump.

Here’s the Seyfarth Shaw memo. It was first posted in the comments, but we have verified it with a source at the firm. Enjoy.
(It doesn’t appear to be retroactive, like the pay raises of so many other firms. But hey, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.)
—–Original Message—–
From: Poor, Stephen
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 11:05 AM
To: FIRM Associates
Cc: FIRM Partners – Equity; Braun, Judy; Maremont, Linda J.; McAveeney, Jay
Subject: Associate Compensation
On behalf of the Equity Partners, the Executive Committee is pleased to announce that starting salaries for associates are being set at $145,000 (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Boston); $160,000 (New York); $135,000 (Houston and Sacramento) and $130,000 (Atlanta). This change in starting salaries is accompanied by some additional compensation adjustments across all class levels. By Thursday, you will receive notification of any adjustment to your individual salary. In addition, there will be meetings in each office with your Office Managing Partner to discuss the adjustments in the salary scale. There will be no changes to the Firm’s minimum expected chargeable hour requirements. We share the view noted by many of you in the focus groups that maintaining the Firm’s culture and atmosphere is essential. We will continue to work towards that shared goal.
We recognize that the talents of our Firm’s associates are among our greatest assets. Thank you for the efforts you expend on behalf of the Firm and our clients and thank you for your patience as we worked our way through this process. We are proud to invest in some of the country’s finest legal talent.
Thanks,
Steve