Biglaw, Crowell & Moring, Money, Skaddenfreude

Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: More Announcements, and Weekend Open Thread

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Thanks for your responses to our recent call for memos. Here are two more firms that have announced associate pay raises:

1. Crowell & Moring: Starting salaries to $160,000, effective August 1. Minimum billables to 1900 hours, effective September 1. Associates who do not wish to meet the new minimum are invited to reach “alternative arrangements” with the firm.

2. Dow Lohnes: No, Rupert Murdoch is not trying to buy them. Dow Lohnes is an AmLaw 200 law firm with a significant presence in Atlanta. Will their move to the $160K scale encourage other Atlanta firms to follow suit?

Full memos, after the jump.


CROWELL & MORING ASSOCIATE PAY RAISE MEMO
As many of you know, several peer firms throughout the city have recently moved their starting associate salaries to $160,000. We have discussed this move with partners, associates and counsel in all of our U.S.-based offices over the past several weeks. Our goal has been to find a solution for our firm that would allow us to: (i) recruit and retain the best and brightest legal talent; (ii) ensure that promotional opportunities would remain open to all; and (iii) preserve our culture of flexibility and balance. To these ends, the Management Board has approved the following compensation and hours system:
– Effective August 1, the firm will raise its starting associate salaries to $160,000. It will increase the salaries of second year lawyers to $170,000, and will adjust the salaries of other associates and counsel as well, taking into account performance.
– Effective September 1, the firm will increase the minimum billable hour requirement to 1900 hours. This new hours requirement will bring us closer to, but still below, the hours expectation at competitive firms across the city.
We appreciate the challenge that the higher billable hour requirement may create and will work collaboratively to accommodate individual lawyers who either cannot, or do not wish to, satisfy the higher hour requirement. Should you be interested in such an accommodation, you should speak directly with the chair(s) of your practice group. The practice groups will partner with the LDC to ensure that our alternative arrangements meet the groups’ business needs as well as your personal needs. To ensure that we implement appropriate compensation adjustments on August 1, we will need to have any alternative arrangements in place by July 18.
Should you have any questions, feel free to contact me directly.
Ellen
Ed. note: Ellen Dwyer is chair of Crowell & Moring’s Lawyer Development Committee. She reports to the firm’s Management Committee.
DOW LOHNES ASSOCIATE PAY RAISE MEMO

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