West Coast Pay Raise Watch: Don’t Forget Gunderson Dettmer
If you graduated from law school before or during the tech boom of the late 1990’s, you may recall how an elite boutique named Gunderson Dettmer led the charge on associate pay raises. As noted here:
In 1999, a Silicon Valley firm named Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, shook the legal community by offering new associates a starting salary of $125,000 with a guaranteed bonus of $20,000. This represented a 25 percent increase in the average base salary and even more for the total compensation package. Other firms in major cities around the country were forced to follow Gunderson’s lead and annual salaries increased by about 30 percent between 1999 and 2000. New associates reaped the benefits.
The firm is considerably bigger today. And it didn’t lead this latest round of pay raises; Orrick deserves credit for that.
But Gunderson Dettmer is definitely keeping up. Moreover, as a source at the firm notes, “Thankfully it appears that we didn’t take the underhanded bonus-cutting route that Wilson Sonsini and Heller Ehrman did.”
Check out the memo, after the jump.
GUNDERSON DETTMER STOUGH VILLENEUVE FRANKLIN & HACHIGIAN PAY RAISE MEMO
From: Scott C. Dettmer
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 8:53 AM
To: #All Associates
Cc: #All Partners; Scott Armienti
Subject: 2007 Compensation
We’re pleased to announce that effective May 1, 2007, the firm is increasing the base annual compensation for our first year associates in our Menlo Park, Boston and San Diego offices to $160,000 (which is the current level of base annual compensation for our NY associates).
The base annual compensation for our other associate classes is also being increased, and attached is a chart covering the changes for each of those classes. These changes will be reflected in your May 31, 2007 paychecks (along with retroactive pay for the period of May 1st through May 15th).
We greatly appreciate all your hard work and continuing contributions!
SALARY CHART
Menlo Park, Boston, New York & San Diego:
Class of 2006: $160,000
Class of 2005: $170,000
Class of 2004: $185,000
Class of 2003: $210,000
Class of 2002: $230,000
Class of 2001: $250,000
Class of 2000: $265,000
Class of 1999: $280,000
(26) Comments
Comments
"Thankfully it appears that we didn't take the underhanded bonus-cutting route that Wilson Sonsini and Heller Ehrman did."
HA!
So Funny, So True.
(snap snap)
Lat, please post coverage of the Bluebook Invitational. We know you were there, and we want to read about it.
Thanks!
Lat, you are on a roll today. That's another few $mil going into associate pockets with Irell and Gunderson.
Thanks for keeping up on the salary & bonus posts.
Now Boston joins in all the fun... come on Chicago... keep up.
The NY190K train has derailed... Looks like parity will prevail.
falwell is dead. 160K for all
Hey, all I know is that now there are "lifestyle" shops like Orrick and MoFo paying more than "sweatshops" like Wilmer in DC. Too bad they don't have Boston offices.
Come on, Chicago....you know you want to go there...and by there, I mean $160k....
What do Covington, A&P and Wilmer gain by dragging their feet (aside for bad will). They wont be the first firm to make the bosun effective June 1st.
What do Covington, A&P and Wilmer gain by dragging their feet (aside for bad will). They wont be the first firm to make it effective June 1st.
ALSO, how come no one is discussing that the NY firms are actually BELOW market for total compensation once you realize that most of them give NO or little bar-stipend. Irell gives 15K.
NY FIRMS get your act together. A first year at irell (or any other CA shop), makes $15K more than your incoming associates do.
ALSO, how come no one is discussing that the NY firms are actually BELOW market for total compensation once you realize that most of them give NO or little bar-stipend. Irell gives 15K.
NY FIRMS get your act together. A first year at irell (or any other CA shop), makes $15K more than your incoming associates do.
Trying to update the DC-CA-BOS-CHI list of shame. Feel free to update.
10. Kirkland & Ellis
11. Covington & Burling
14. WilmerHale
16. Sidley Austin
18. Williams & Connolly
19. Arnold & Porter
22. Jones Day
25. Ropes & Gray
27. Mayer Brown
35. Winston & Strawn
36. King & Spalding
40. Baker Botts
41. Morgan Lewis
43. Baker McKenzie
46. Pillsbury Winthrop
47. McDermott
48. Jenner
49. DLA
50. Fulbright
52. Munger
53. Goodwin Proctor
57. Vinson & Elkins
59. Alston & Bird
61. Sonnenschein
62. Heller Ehrman
64. Holland & Knight
65. Greenberg Traurig
66. Bingham
67. Kaye Scholer
68. Foley & Lardner
69. Steptoe & Johnson
70. Hunton & Williams
71. Patton Boggs
72. Perkins Coie
74. Kirkpatrick & Lockhart
75. Nixon Peabody
77. Bryan Cave
78. Strook
79. Crowell & Moring
80. Howrey
82. Reed Smith
83. Dorsey & Whitney
84. Katten Muchin
To Wilson Sonsini's credit (grudgingly) and a few other CA firms: they do give a 12k stipend to incoming first years. It is not a loan/advance like many NYC firms.
I would also like to note that although Heller and WSGR are getting flak for their change of policy, MoFo also cut bonuses when they raised salaries.
So a first-year banking analyst (yes, the ones who just graduated from college) now makes much more than a first-year law firm associate in total comp. Historically, NY firms have at least tried to be somewhat competitive with first-year banking ASSOCIATE comp (after the first year, banking comp increases dramatically). Getting paid this much less than a first-year analyst is pathetic.
http://www.dealbreaker.com/2007/05/dealbreaker_bonusbumper_2007_u.php#more
New York firms need to step up big, and soon. A bump to at least $250k for first years would help.
Dude, K&E might move, but the rest don't give a f**k.
And thanks to Wilmer and Sidley they all have plenty of cover to point to "peer" firms and claim to be paying "at the top of the market."
"Sure, the NY firms pay more than us in our city, but they're really not paying market. They're paying above market, whereas we are market leaders, paying market."
until law firms move to a fee structure that doesn't consist of billable hours, like investment banks do, earnings, fees and comps will never match up. 2:26, this is an apples and oranges issue. don't start conflating.
At least Mayer Brown, A&P, and Winston are at the top of the list of shame. They have that going for them, which is nice.
2:18, put MoFo back on that list of shame (I'd do it myself, but I have no idea where any firm except WLRK lists on Vault). They're no different from Heller and Wilson.
2:26, keep dreaming -- you have plenty of time to sleep now that classes are probably over for you
I think people are reading the WSGR memo incorrectly. Anyone from WSGR care to comment?
Yes, the firm is eliminating its quarterly bonuses, which pays $$ each quarter to people who work at over a 2100 hour pace for the quarter. But the memo also suggest that they'll add a year-end productivity bonus, to make sure that the most productive (i.e., highest billers) are compensated fairly.
Given that the news system pays full bonuses at 2,100 hours, I assume the extra compensation they mention is for those who work past that amount (which is similar to the quarterly). So aren't they just moving the quarterly bonuses into a year end payment?
It seems to me that WSGR did a true bump for those who work past 2,100.
It's less than a full bump for those under.
Interest in summer jobs at top firms cools down
High billable hours, attrition take toll.
Leigh Jones
National Law Journal
May 14, 2007
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1178787897959
Tom Nosewicz interviewed with about 15 top law firms during Stanford Law School's recruiting season last fall. He heard promises of big money, engaging work and a shot at full-time employment once he completed his law degree.
"I did so many interviews it was sort of ridiculous. I felt like a salesman," said Nosewicz, who just finished his second year at Stanford.
Later this month, he'll head to New York to begin that summer job. But he has decided against filling a slot at one of the big firms that courted him last fall. Instead, he has taken a job without pay at the federal defender's office, where he said he'll get "on-the-ground training" not available as a summer associate at a megafirm.
Nosewicz, 26, is part of a faction of law students at top schools whom associate-hungry law firms are salivating over, but who nevertheless are rejecting big firms' advances for what they say are more meaningful summer jobs.
Although the majority of law school graduates continue to take jobs in the private sector, the percentage of jobs at private firms — particularly large ones — has declined each year since the class of 2001. At the same time, the number of attorney jobs across all sectors has increased, according to NALP, a Washington-based nonprofit that tracks legal employment. In addition, the number of graduates has remained at about 40,000 for several years.
The upshot is that while the number of overall jobs taken has escalated by 12%, large-firm positions make up an increasingly smaller percentage of those jobs.
-- more --
Kaye Scholer has raised to the 160K scale in LA, DC, and Chicago, effective May 1.
Great news about KS!!!!! How can the other firms (Sidley, K&E) hold back now??
Anyone know anything about Gunderson's bonuses? I've heard they're not great.