I wonder if Dechert Philly will finally bump to $160

"If you have any questions about your evaluation or bonus, please contact any member of the PRC. "

Wouldn't someone from the compensation committee be better to talk to rather than some random dude in China?

15,285,500/337=45,357.567. The average associate bonus was 45k. Considering market for a first year is 35k plus 10k special bonus and goes up from there, this is really poor. The average person gets the 1st year bonus.

Comes out to an average bonus, for those who got a bonus, of about 45,000. About 76% of associates got a bonus.

Dechert's biggest office is Philly, so it's hard to say whether bonueses were market (I believe that market bonus for a midlevel in Philly is two cheesesteaks wit and some soft pretzels, but correct me if I'm wrong).

Associates who securitize things generally were hosed, despite years of mad profitability and a great overall year for the firm. Many are still crazy slow and unlikely to make hours for 2008.

OTOH, Dechert has not laid off associates. (Staff attorneys and paras, yes, but not associates unless you count the occasional "you might want to consider leaving" talk and that has not been targeted by hours. Dechert continues to pay salary to scores of associates that don't seem likely to generate income this year.)

that is one real bastard of a partner. "Dear ATL, please put some positive spin on the fact that we dock for late time entry."

And you fell for it. Have some journalistic integrity and stand by your earlier statement!

Me either.

1028: When did Dechert start hiring rappers?

Oh, and yes, 10:23, the "PRC" sets out comp here. I wonder how that sits in our new Hong Kong office.

Dechert's Charlotte office is now on a full NY $160K scale, and all associates who met the min. billable requirement were paid a full NY bonus. The salary bump is actually retroactive to SEPTEMBER 2007 (no idea why but I'm sure they're not complaining). No "special" bonuses were awarded though.

Pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Has anyone else received Dechert's mailings and emails touting the firm's great year? They must have cost a lot (at least for the printed ones).

10:33, I've had lots of time to pursue my outside interests lately. I also do needlepoint.

Wait, I stopped reading that other post about docking for late time entry. People are really up in arms about that? Give me a f'n break. Part of the job is to make sure time gets in before the end of the month, and there's no reason the firm shouldn't want to have a disincentive for missing the deadline. Learn how to pick your battles.

You need to make a new "firm spin" tag.

Insider - If you got your billables entered on time, you wouldn't have such free time.

10:56 - I think the biggest gripe isn't the bite, but the lack of notice. It's a rule that is made after the fact. They did give folks a chance to earn the cash back which is good I suppose.

Otherwise, I see nothing wrong with having a hammer if people choose not to bill promptly.

A big law firm I used to work for would charge $100 for each day you are late billing. So if you are 7 days behind and you missed an end of the month deadline, they would knock you down $700. How's that for fair - especially if you took a vacation at the end of the month or if you had to close a big deal?
This was especially not good for transactional attorneys who are paid at closing and do not generally send periodic invoices out.

1023(a) is awesome. 1023(b) is a tool.

I (I mean ME, DUDES!) did needlepoint when I was a kid, and I knew it was rad then, even though Zack was always like, "Hey, loser, ouly girls do needlepoint and you should do crochet because the tools are bigger." Who's a loser now, Zack? BIGLAW lawyers do needlepoint, and none of them do crochet, and I bet none of them crochet thongs that they make their best friends wear, either! MOATED!!! I'm going to be a summer associate this summer (nice, nice), and I'm bringing the NEEDLE-IZZAH-PIZZOINTAH!

WOW! Looks like Dechert's Marketing TROLLS are out in full force. Sadly for Dechert, they aren't going to get "positive spin" from the shit that they pulled. If they were going to mess with people's money, they should let the rules of the game be known.

What was the average bonus in Philly?

11:42 - avg bonus is -$15k

Best of luck recruiting Dechert. When 2L's research your f$ucked up firm they are going to run in the opposite direction. Word of mouth alone has spread about all of your shady tactics. This is what happens when you are cheap. Why work for you when I can go down the street and work for a real top notch firm who doesn't play fast and loose with my money?

10:56

You are such a tool. Go back and read the post from the other Dechert thread. People were pissed off because they were getting their time in correctly. The firm later came with some rule that even if you had time recorded but not "closed" you were penalized. That was something new that nobody knew about. As long as time was "closed" by the end of the month people thought that they were acting under the firms' policy. The policy was later changed so that they could find a reason not to pay the associates. Don't be such an asshole.

The Philly office will never get $160K scale. The firm is only going to pay what the market dictates. Dechert had to raise to the $160K scale in other markets in order to compete and get talent, not because they care about associates. Other big shops in Philly will have to step it up in order for Dechert to follow. If Pepper and Blank Rome want to get all the potential Dechert 2L Penn students, all they have to do is kick up scale to $160K.

Dechert is beyond pathetic. It's very interesting that a "source from the firm" had to contact Lat to help them get their side of the story out. It's very telling that the firm can't stand on its' own merit or behind its' own policies. They didn't bump the bonus pot 40% because they give a shit. They are playing with the numbers. They can't fool anyone. When you factor in the 25% of people who didn't get a bonus and the docked % of everyone who did get a bonus it evens out. I'm sure the firm lined the partners pockets a little more. Go sell your wares some place else Dechert, because we're all stocked up here.

Anyone who says they didn't know about the billing policy wasn't paying attention. I left Dechert more than six months ago, and I knew not entering and closing time promptly could affect my bonus. They made a big deal about it. The associates committee even got their panties in a wad because they were worried the firm might try to apply it retroactively LSAT year.

Just because you didn't think they'd actually do it doesn't mean you didn't know about the policy.

that should be "LAST year". damn typos.

It seems that people are confused about what it means to have "late" time entries under Dechert's new, retroactive policy. The people fined were NOT limited to those few who blew month-end deadlines. Rather, the fines extend to many associates, probably a majority of associates, who did not regularly enter and close their time within 3 days of the day worked. Associates were never informed that they would be subject to monetary penalties if they did not close all time within 3 days. And no associates were ever told that they were violating policy or doing anything wrong, before getting hit with substantial bonus reductions. That is the outrage.

How many of you would be unaffected if your firms decided that they would penalize associates for 2007 time entries that were not closed within 3 days? Unless your firm has a clear policy in effect, I doubt many would escape unscathed.

Quick question Dechert! If you paid out soooooo much money in bonuses, then why did you not list amounts by class year? EXACTLY....move on please!! You can't be proud of yourselves.

To the anti-Dechert troll who has posted 95% of the spit-flecked comments to these two threads:

I'm sorry that Dechert rejected you at OCI last summer. Study harder -- your parents are going to kick you out of the basement sooner or later.

questions:

(1) did the NYC office of dechert pay market bonuses (incl. special bonuses) to its associates?

(2) if so, wouldn't that account for about 10MM of the 15MM in bonuses?

(3) so following from that (assuming the answers are "yes,") what does that mean for the bonuses paid out to non-NYC associates? for shit? i mean, that's approx 2/3 of the money going to like 1/7 of the associates...

inquiring minds want to know.

p.s. dechert blows donkey balls.

Donkey balls to $190.

Almost vitriolic? You have no idea what the sentiment is around Dechert LLP these days. "Vitriolic" doesn't begin to cover it.

And as usual, you're only getting half the story from Dechert "leadership."

What the memo fails to say is whether or not the total bonus number includes the special bonus paid to New York associates and whether the number is before or after the punitive penalties charged to associates for not doing their time in the post-hoc manner leadership decided it should be. If the New York special bonus numbers are included and the gross number is the one before penalties were assessed, then the bonuses paid to non-New York associates this year may actually be less than what they were last year.

The facts still remain:

1) Dechert associates were penalized for something they didn't know could draw a penalty. The firm made it clear last year that associates had to get their time in by the end of the month. That was made clear. But the three-day rule was never communicated to associates. For the firm to argue otherwise is simply assenine.

2) Instead of thinking of ways to reward their associates and make them feel valued, wanted, and welcome, Dechert partners snivel around like rats trying to find ways to screw them. They had to wait until February to give associates their bonuses (which still haven't been paid out, mind you), because they were too busy conjuring up a penalty scheme that hurts associates directly. Oh, and the partners promised to have bonuses to associates by mid-January-- isn't it funny that the partners missed their own deadline because associates weren't following some obscure deadline rule themselves??

3) As for the Derek Winokur chatter around here, I find it unfortunate that he's been dragged into this. It's not right that he's the whipping boy for the firm's mismanagement regarding bonuses. However, Mr. Lat, it is a story that deserves some attention, because Dechert NEVER EVER EVER brings in a lateral associate as a partner. Dechert doesn't make its own associates partner, nevermind castoffs from another firm. It was a blatant abuse of power by the Mismanaging Partner that wreaks of nepotism and conflicts of interest.

4) In a profession wherein its members are supposed to be held to a higher standard, Dechert's leadership fails miserably.

Dechert London is a complete sh!thole. mass attrition, low quality work, completely demoralized group.

2:09 says, "Dechert NEVER EVER EVER brings in a lateral associate as a partner."

That's horseshit. I was an associate in a smaller office of the firm and saw it happen in my first 6 months. I don't even work there anymore, but there's no need to go around screaming accusations about things that are simply and demonstrably false.

Just because they didn't promote YOU to partner doesn't mean something fishy is going on. Get over yourself.

I know your pain Dechert London. The Dechert DC office is in shambles. No work for long periods of time. The work that we do end up getting is paralegal work. Demoralized is not even close to how people are feeling.

A lot of the postings on here reek of sour grapes.

I don't work at Decherts, but I did get an offer from them and spent a lot of time meeting people there. I thought they were a well managed firm and, as is well known in the market, highly profitable.

Some people have been posting about Dechert having no work and no money, but in the same breath mentioning how Bart Winokur makes US$8m a year. That puts him in the top handful of lawyers in the US and more than partners get at Clearys, by the way. Not surprising then that his son wants to join (although I find that a bit odd).

I am also aware of a number of associates who have come in as partners, including at least 2 in London over the past 2 years.

The people complaining about bonuses should get over it and claw it back next year.

2:45

Pipe down asshole. Your situation was before Dechert merged with Swidler Berlin. The lay of the landscape is completely different. Why do you think that 95% of the Swidler people jumped ship? They were being cut out, forced out, etc. All types of shit was happening. I'm sure that associate was related to someone as well. LMFAO. Dechert is a total joke.

2:09

Amazing post. Thanks for breaking it down. Your post was f$cking poetic.

Preach on....preach on!!

3:09

You have no idea what you are talking about. How stupid are you?

1) Interviewing with a firm and working there are totally two different things. Of course everything that you saw when you interviewed was on the up and up. They were kissing your ass and saying anything to get you in the door. Grow up. Don't you know what this business is about by now? Dechert will put their best foot forward to get you in the door. Once you are in, the other shoe drops. Then you find out how they nickel and dime you and how the firm is poorly managed.

2) Everyone who works at Dechert knows that the firm is "poorly" managed. Dechert does not have high street cred. Just call any recruiter and they can give you the 411. The firm has grossly inflated PPP. They made a lot of money the last two years because they raised their rates by 26-30%, not because they went out and drummed up a lot of business. The firm also cuts a lot of corners. You have no idea how cheap they are. Their mail room service company is low rung, their word processing department is virtually non-existent/incompetent, supplies are hard to come by. Shit, they bill the client for everything from paper, binders, and red welds. It's a crime. That's overhead. The cost of doing business. Not according to Dechert. As a result of the crazy rate hikes, Dechert has also lost a lot of business.

3) Yeah, the partners have money for themselves but no one else. Hence, why so many areas of the firm suffers. The firm is not broke but they don't have the same type of money that the market leader firms have. The math is simple: Dechert only has 169 equity partners. That is why their PPP also stay high. The reverse is that they have something like 400 non-equity. The real players don't have this bullshit non-equity status.

Here are some examples of top firms with real PPP payouts and NO non-equity status:

Wachtell - 77 equity partners
Skadden - 392 equity partners
Baker & Mac - 648 equity partners
Sullivan - 164 equity partners
Cleary - 181 equity partners
Gibson - 259 equity partners
Simpson - 162 equity partners
Davis - 147 equity partners
Paul Weiss - 109 equity partners
Cravath - 87 equity partners

Firms like Skadden have more equity partners than Dechert and they still pay out more. Just over $2million PPP. The one partner at Dechert pulls $8 million because he pulls double duty as managing partner. The guys at Wachtell don't need to do that and they still rake in about $4 million PPP.
The bottom line is that if I am a client and I'm going to pay NY premium rates, why would I choose Dechert? I would choose a firm with a solid name and all-star hot shot attorneys to the likes of Skadden, Simpson, Kirkland, Latham, Weil, Wachtell, etc.

All I can say is so what that 2 lone associates made partner in the London office. We heard on this thread today from a London person. Doesn't sound like things are going too well over there. Don't compare UK office to US offices. You know the game is played completely different.

Damn! I feel sorry for you Dechert people. Jump if you can.

Dechert = TTT

4:01 - those new partners in London are non-equity. You've got a few sleazebags there who are equity, hire peons and sycophants to churn out low quality work for clients demanding a standardized products, then brag about how much money they make. Nobody uses them for anything more complicated than fill in the blank transactional work.

Heard they're holding associates back class years if they don't perform (ie not allowing you to advance to the next class year).

It sucks that this firm has taken so long to even talk about bonuses. The fact that they haven't even paid out is insulting. Glad that I don't work there.

Does Dechert even have heavy hitters? Who's their hot shot partner? I didn't know that they had any.

4:36

I heard the same thing. This has to do with stealth layoffs. They want to push people out so they hold them back a class year. Very low tactics. They trumped up these issues "performance" around special bonus time.

Dechert London -

Thanks for the facts. Sounds about right. The firm has problems getting real deal work state side too. Hopefully your office won't get screwed on the bonus as well.

4:36:

i wouldn't be surprised. it's something they have experience with. just ask anyone who was there a few years ago. layoffs wouldn't surprise me, either -- they're good at that, too. of course, dechert will have to wait another 10 months so that they can do it two weeks before christmas. 'cause that's how they roll, son.

as for the people defending poor, poor d. winokur, don't you think it's a little ... suspect ... that there was NO announcement sent out to the rest of the firm when he joined the firm. i believe that is the ONLY time in the last 10 years that a partner has joined the firm with absolutely NO announcement thereof. don't tell me that was an oversight. wonder if d. winokur is equity? as far as i'm concerned his being made partner is a slap in the face to the associates at dechert who busted their farkin' asses for years to get there.

of course, knowing that you share the DNA of the Dark Lord of Doucheria might be the sort of psychic pain that deserves at least ONE little glimmer of the positive.

4:42: heavy hitters? Only if you count other firms' cast offs and those adept at taking credit for other people's work/clients.

Don't forget Dechert was one of the firms that embraced layoffs after the tech bubble burst.

Didn't Dechert also layoff a bunch of FRE people a few years back?

4:51

That's right. Great post by the way. What the firm did with D. Winokur was very shady and stealth. I'm sure he didn't get his bonus docked. I bet he got his full special bonus too, unlike what the firm did to everybody else.

Dechert = FTT

Fourth Tier Toliet

Good luck recruiting at top schools Dechert. The only people who will work for you are TTS.

TTS = Third Tier Students

Dechert won't be top choice for students with options. Students from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, NYU, U of Chicago, UPenn, Stanford, etc. won't be knocking on your door. CWT will even be first over you.

Dechert, STOP sending around cards, emails, and flyers to your peers telling us how good of a year you had. Focus on taking care of your people and actually managing the place.

ATTN: DECHERT

STOP SENDING ME JUNK MAIL AND SPAM. OR IF YOU ARE GOING TO SEND SPAM, PLEASE MAKE IT THE "FOOD" KIND. THANK YOU.

3:12

You pipe down, asshole. My "situation" was not prior to the Swidler deal, and nothing I said gave an indication to the contrary. I was talking about someone hired in 2006, who was not related to anyone at Dechert.

Why do I think 95% of the Swidler people left? That seems a little high, but whatever. I have no idea why they left. Different office, different practice group.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be upset about your bonus, or about the time entry policy, or whatever. I'm just saying that making blatantly false assertions with no support whatsoever doesn't help you.

2:45:

NO U. INFINITY.

Derek is the first lateral associate brought in as a partner in the history of Dechert.

Most partners abstained from voting even though they adamantly opposed the move, because they feared The Chairman.

The firm is ruled by fear and retribution.

Dechert's partner comp, between highest and lowest, including non-equity, is close to 50 to 1. Compare that to Skadden's 4 to 1.

Dechert new partners make $350K, while Skadden's new partners make $1 million, and get a vote.

We report, you decide.

In past years Dechert management was honest about layoffs being because of economic down turns. Now they are very sneaky about it. If you're in a slow group, expect trumped up performance reviews as the firm seeks to trim those associate ranks. See the link below for an example of more honest times at Dechert.

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2002/12/16/newscolumn2.html?page=1

The firm needs to sweeten the bonus pot about 90% in order to take care of the associates that have worked really hard. The firm only pays bonuses to the top 10% of billers. What they don't address is the fact that they leave you starving for work most of the year. Give your associates billable work and they will bill. It's a slap in the face that some people are making hours and still not getting a bonus. On the flip side, associates should not be penalized for not having the work.

This hurts recruiting, especially in markets like New York where there's so much competition for summer associates and laterals. Really, what risk averse lawyer who sees these posts about Dechert (and OMM) is going to opt for either of these firms if they have a choice? Top NY firms made bonus announcements in late October/early November. Many firms finish associate reviews well before the start of the New Year. Dechert makes a vague announcement, begrudgingly pays the special bonus, and starts giving 2007 reviews in February 2008 AFTER spending weeks calculating how to skim 3-10% off bonuses.

On 11/1/07 Lat posted about Davis Polk's Bonus announcement. Back then there were some posts about Dechert's less than stellar Bonus system. Such gems as:
"3:57 is only sort of right. In NYC, Dechert will match whatever the bare minimum is to claim they're on market. In Philly, whatevery they pay IS the market, but it won't match NYC.

In 2003, Dechert saw a large number of associates leave because profits were going up (at an astonishing rate) and bonuses were paltry. Since then, they've actually been making an effort.

But the bonus is a black box. Hours play a role, but it's still discretionary. I knew people who came out extremely well, and I knew people who did not. The bonuses are determined within practice groups, so a 4th yr in litigation and a 4th year in FRE (finance & real estate) could have different bonuses for the same hours, with no real explanation.

Hours are critical. If you do not reach the 1950 minimum, you will not get a bonus. If you reach it, you are bonus eligible, which doesn't really guarantee you anything.

As soon as the billing year ends, the comp committee meets and evalautes everyone's hours and nonbillable contributions, like recruiting, biz dev, ass kissing, etc. They make a recommendation on bonus based on all of these things for every eligible associate. Then they give the list of all the recommended bonuses to Bart, who has final say. Every year, he spends the holidays at his place in Vail with a bottle of schnapps, the list of recommended bonsuses, and a calculator. He puts on his "Ebenezer Scrooge Has a Posse" t-shirt, taps the schnapps, and gets down to business.

They really are trying to be more transparent about it. They're just not very good at transparency. If they took the time spent by all the partners on the comp committee for committee meetings and had the partners doing billable work, they'd more than make up the difference between their complicated magic fairy dust system and just paying market."

originally posted by dechert alum

On 11/1/07 Dechert refugee wrote:

"Oh, yeah - Dechert likes to hold itself out a a "player" in the national market to clients and recruits, but when it comes to bonus time, the "peer firms" it uses to justify its weak bonii (pun intended) are a bunch of also-rans, just like Dechert is.

They love to compare themselves to the big NY firms in client and recruiting pitches, but like 4:11 said, come bonus time, they happily tell their associates that their peer firms are really marginal national or strong regional firms.

Telling, don't you think?"

ATL's 8.23.07's Fall Recruiting Thread:
"PPP are high because Dechert has perfected the art of the pyramid scheme that Biglaw firms strive for. They do not kick much back to the associates. Bonus structure at Dechert is almost strictly based on hitting particular billable targets. There is some wiggle room for discretionary bonuses, but it's rarely ever used. Your average bonus at Dechert (Philly) probably runs in the $15-$20k range.

The true chutzpah of the Dechert partnership was on full display in 2005, when they made a presentation regarding bonuses that included a powerpoint slide with two graphs overlaid on each other. One was TOTAL associate bonuses across all offices from 1999-2004. The other was AVERAGE PPP across all offices (including non-equity partners in the calculation) for the same years. The point of the graphs was to make it appear that associate bonuses were rising even faster than PPP. Which was of course pure BS."
originally posted by Dechert h8s its associates

ATL's 8.23.07's Fall Recruiting Thread:
"How soon we forget.

December 09, 2002. LAYOFFS AT DECHERT

Philadelphia's Dechert laid off nine associates in its D.C. office last week; all were part of the financial services group. "Had we had the work, we would have kept all of them," says Jeffrey Puretz, deputy chair of the practice. Dechert's financial services practice grew "explosively" from 1998 to 2000, but has leveled off, Puretz says, leaving the 85-lawyer D.C. office with "large incoming classes [of associates], larger than we really needed." Puretz says the firm gave the associates, most of them at the junior level, severance packages that "we hope will see them through their next positions." After the layoffs, Dechert's D.C. financial services group stands at 65 lawyers."

The nice thing about Dechert is you can bill 1800 without fear of getting canned, so long as you do good work. May not get a bonus, but it's worth making a market base salary, even without bonus, and leaving by 8 pm every day, and rarely on weekends.

The big question is when bonus checks get cashed (for those who even got bonuses), how many associates will go running out the door? Although it's a down economy, associates don't like getting nickeled and dimed. I can't imagine that headhunters will get the brushoff when they cold call Dechert mid-levels and tell them about firms that don't dock one's bonus for not entering time every 3 days, don't take 4 months to finish reviews, and don't wait until every other firm announces bonuses?

Lat, I really think you should look into the Derek Winokur situation. It could get very juicy.

This is total horseshit. I’m betting 95% of the posted comments are from competing firms seeking to scuttle Dechert’s recruiting efforts. None of my fellow associates in the NY office have a problem with being required to submit our time within three days, and being penalized if we fail to do so. How could we? This is a more than reasonable requirement. The only issue is the universal sense among the associates that there was not a clear signal of a change in the time-keeping policy, and that the penalty was imposed without notice. The reaction to this issue has ranged from indifference to annoyance, but nothing that would fuel the vitriol expressed above.

My salary has increased by 67% in the last three years and is now eight times the median income for persons over 25 with earnings. My bonus money (special and yearend) this year was three times the median income and three times the cost of the house I grew up in. I was penalized less than three percent of my total bonus money because I had been late in getting my time in (mea culpa), but I’ll get that money back if I get my time in promptly. Moreover, this conditional penalty was taken from money that the firm was not obliged to give and to which I was not legally entitled. Given all this, the tone and tenor of the comments above are silly and unseemly.

11:20
You make some fair points. No one should cry for Dechert associates many of whom make well into the six figures. But it's not plausible that firms across the NY area are taking time out of their day to sabotage Dechert's recruiting efforts. Dechert just isn't enough of a player that other firms need to post on ATL to hurt Dechert's recruiting. Paying bonuses late, and being among the last of the top 30 Amlaw firms to raise salaries in 2007 hurt Dechert's recruiting.
Furthermore, you must not know your fellow associates very well, as I can think of many in the NY office who do in fact have a problem with being shorted on their bonuses. They are not all malcontents. Most of them are very well respected and are known to be on track. If you expect other associates to walk the halls bitching while partners are listening, then obviously you're not going to hear a lot about the anger they feel. If you're this aligned with the policy, then you'd be the last any of them would talk to.

11:20
Search through prior posts about Dechert in other threads on ATL. Some are reposted in this thread. You'll see that many are very critical of the firm. Obviously most firms have their share of off track, disgruntled associates so you have to be skeptical about these anonymous blog posts. Even then, there's just too much anger here to simply discount everything as some effort by competing firms to screw with Dechert's recruiting.

The weekend is finally here and this thread will fade away and Dechert can go back to pretending everything is fine. Fortunately for Dechert it's a down economy and there'll be a lot of resumes out there when business picks back up. The downturn should also lower attrition rates. Law students and laterals have short enough memories that two, three years down the line, it will be as though none of this ever happened. In the future Dechert's leaders might want to keep in mind that there's this thing called the internet, and there's much more information in the marketplace than when the firm decision makers were coming up the ranks. You can only get away with so much b.s. these days.

Any thoughts about MLB increasing associate salaries in Princeton but not Phlly? I think this answers the question - Dechert and MLB are willing to hold the philly market at 145K.

9:07-
MLB and Dechert are probably of one mind about holding Philly salaries at 145k. Doesn't Dechert pay 160 in its Charlotte office? 15k here, 3-10% of bonus there adds up. Don't forget all the salary compression that happens at the senior level in Philly. People who opt for that market must really love Philly or have strong family ties to that city to leave so much money on the table. It looks really unlikely that Dechert or MLB will do the right thing for their Philly associates. Honestly if the money matters to you, your option in that market is to vote with your feet.

Salaries in Philly will only move when Philly can no longer attract quality lawyers. Philly 1st year salaries are below every other big legal market and their senior associate salaries are way below the salaries of every other big legal market. It may take a few years, but the Philly legal market cannot survive for long with this salary structure in place.

How much does a 4000 sq ft house cost in the philly 'burbs?

probably close to a million on the main line if it is on a decent plot of land.

Embarrassing to see this kind of blubbering. Cry me a river. You did a half-assed job of billing and now your bitching because you didn't bonus. That's why it's called a "bonus," sport.

The memo above was one of several. Bonuses are standard--if you didn't know your lockstep bonus, you are an idiot.

If you don't like it, move. My guess is that this is largely an effort to get rid of dead wood so that a better crop of first years can be brought in. Dechert continues to attract people who like to work hard, and rewards those who do. If you are a prima donna, look elsewhere.

And at least half of the presumed Dechert lawyers posting above are probably flacks from other firms who are, let's face it, feeling a bit threatened lately.

2/7 Dechert alum -- is that you Amy?

I left during 2007 but I was around when they told everyone that not entering and closing your time within 3 days would affect your bonus. I guess a lot of people just ignored the announcement.

The point about "I entered it on time but didn't know I had to close it" is B.S. There is no way for the firm to know you supposedly entered it if you didn't close it. You can continue to edit it until it is closed. And a partner who needs to know how much time has been recorded to date on a matter (clients sometimes ask) can tell nothing from your "entered but not closed" time because it does not show up in the system. Anyone with a brain in their head knows it has to be closed as well as entered. I agree that the firm was a bit vague as to how big the financial penalty would be, but they definitely said it would affect bonuses. This is a common sense policy because for many years some associates were severely abusing the system and actually inventing time at the end of the month, sometimes resulting in unbillable lost time and sometimes resulting in overbilling clients, or partners writing off bad time.