Salary Freeze

Nationwide Pay Freeze Watch: Morgan Lewis Freezes Even Though They Said They Wouldn't

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Thanks to the power of “the internet,” I’m able to remind you that in October the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius informed associates:

As in past years, base compensation adjustments will continue to be effective as of January 1 and will be reflected in your January paycheck.

In fact, I reminded you just last week that Morgan Lewis previously stated:

As in past years, base compensation adjustments will continue to be effective as of January 1 and will be reflected in your January paycheck.

But yesterday, Morgan Lewis decided:

We have taken a number of steps to manage our business conservatively. One of these is a decision to maintain of counsel and associate base salaries for 2009 at the same levels as those individual lawyers were paid for 2008.

In response to the question “how do you feel about this,” a morning tipster said:

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I feel like I hate these lying f****** s***eat*** f***s.

Agent Kujan, meet Keyser Soze.

Read the full MLB memo after the jump.


MORGAN LEWIS — MEMO — SALARY FREEZE

Most of you probably attended the videoconference that we had earlier today, but I would like to summarize the content of that meeting for any of you who were unable to attend.

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It is obvious that we are subject to the same economic pressures as other businesses. Those of you who follow the legal press have seen the recent articles that have reported a downturn in the legal industry generally. Like other firms, we have seen a significant reduction in our transactional practices, and we are also continuing our efforts to deliver services to clients in an effective and efficient way.

Although the economic decline started many months ago, we were fortunate to have finished our 2008 fiscal year with results that were commensurate with our performance in 2007. We believe that our broad scope of practices has served us well, as certain practice areas are still performing at very high levels.

We have taken a number of steps to manage our business conservatively. One of these is a decision to maintain of counsel and associate base salaries for 2009 at the same levels as those individual lawyers were paid for 2008. We will continue to reward performance with our bonus pool, and we will be announcing individual bonuses later this month with respect to 2008. We have always considered relative merit in awarding bonuses, and as recently announced, we will be focusing more on individual performance in the current year.

We appreciate your many contributions and your understanding the reasons why we are taking these actions for our long-term benefit.

Earlier: Associate Bonus Watch: Morgan Lewis Pushes Back Bonus Decisions

Morgan Lewis Move to Merit Based Bonuses For FY 2009

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