Wiley Rein Moves Associates to Lower Salary Track
Earlier this month, we told you that Hogan & Hartson was moving associates who are not on track to make their hours down to the firm’s lower paying 1,800 hours track. It appears that Wiley Rein is following that lead. We’ve received reports that Wiley is involuntarily moving associates not on track to bill 1,950 hours through the first quarter of 2009 down to its 1,800 hours track. The new base salary for those associates starts at $125,000.
The firm did not respond to Above the Law’s requests for comments. But Wiley Rein has long had two different tracks for associate compensation. According to the firm’s website:
Wiley Rein’s associate salaries are competitive with those paid by other major Washington, DC law firms. We remain committed to the goal of maintaining a healthy work environment, allowing our associates to make decisions in the office that have a positive impact on their lives outside the firm. We are also committed to allowing associates to choose their level of work and compensation.In keeping with these twin goals, we have established a two-tiered salary structure based on billable levels— the current starting salary levels are $125,000 at the 1,800 billable hours level and $160,000 at the 1,950 level. Associates receive deferred compensation if they bill 1,950 hours. The firm also provides half of the deferred compensation amount for those who reach 1,875 billable hours.
Is this a salary cut? Tipsters weigh in after the jump.
Tipsters explain that historically, Wiley Rein tracked associates based on a consultation with each individual associate, as well as the year-end hours report.
“Involuntarily” placing people onto $125K track, based solely on the first quarter hours report, is new.
But, as commenters pointed out when discussing Mayer Brown’s new 2,100 hour bonus threshold, how many people are really on track to hit their hours this year?
We’ll keep you posted.
Earlier: Hogan & Hartson: ‘1800 Hours’ Track Follow Up
New Management at Mayer Brown Delays Start Dates, Changes Bonus Threshold
(76) Comments
Comments
firsty
How is this relevant to Latham?
first
Damn you, 1!
notfirst
old news. this happened months ago.
This place is a piece of crap. Don't go there.
eat it, 4
-1
I would much rather suffer this than a Lathaming
Wiley did Latham Rein me? Wiley will Latham ruin 100 more soon. Layoffs are coming in mid May.
1:
At least I'm not 3.
-4
And now for your Black-U-Weather Forecast....
"WILEY Gunna REIN!"
Thank you, Ollie.
6 = true story
Latham promised me 160 to start, plus bonus. Now all I got is this stinky 75K and a lousy Latham T-shirt. Summers, don't even waste your time sucking up to partners, just don't do shit.
Quien es mas macho, Wiley Rein o Latham (o Ricardo Montalban)?
Damn 13, what awful things did you have to do to get the T-shirt?
Just like the layoffs went on for a while, the salary cuts will keep on going for a while. Just like some firms had multiple rounds of layoffs, some firms will have multiple rounds of salary cuts.
This is only the beginning . . . .
Just like the layoffs went on for a while, the salary cuts will keep on going for a while. Just like some firms had multiple rounds of layoffs, some firms will have multiple rounds of salary cuts.
This is only the beginning . . . .
There's a protest May 1st?
true they deferred new associates till 2010?
true they deferred new associate start dates till 2010?
Elie, are you going to the protest?
some deferred until 2010, some chosen ones to start in late 2009. cut all (?) clerks.
Money don't grow on trees, so what's all this talk about green this and green that. We need a carbon tax on associates, who contribute far too much CO2 to the environment.
So for working 92% of the target hours you would get 78% of the target compensation. Sounds like biglaw to me.
Is McDermott Will & Emery about to do the same thing?
Elie's protest = a reverse hunger strike, consisting of eating until he passes out and his skin cells become merged with the couch cushions.
I would rather get laid off with 6 months severance than take a huge pay cut like that. Maybe if I lived in DC I could afford to live on that pay scale.
So for working 92% of the target hours you would get 78% of the target compensation. Sounds like biglaw to me.
they had too many people accept summer offers after blackberry. the firm isn't really that big and doesn't have that much money. it simply can't support this many new associates.
perhaps they should have given out fewer offers following blackberry...
You'd have to be a fool to take the 1800 track for that lower salary. There's no "lifestyle" different between 1800 and 1950 hours.
If it were, say, 1600 hours, that would be a different story.
The ship be sinking...
so they cut everyone's pay but are paying guaranteed bonuses to people that make 1875 and 1950. brilliant.
@25 - No.
Trust me.
Ummm this news is about a year old. They did the exact same thing last April.
this place will implode when dick wiley finally dies or retires.
SkaddenDC has been having meetings all day about something. Everyone is walking on eggshells around here. F'ing annoying.
11 - hilarious
They aren't offering you the 1800 hour track. They are putting you on that pay scale when you aren't making the monthly avg. for the 1950 track.
Everyone wants "lifestyle" but no-one would choose a paycut to get it!
27, Why? Do you think you would find a job paying biglaw salaries within 6 months? Or do you only have 6 months to live or something? Why all the focus on 6 months rather than keeping a career going?
40 - good point. After the 6 month severance is gone, what to do, what to do? God forbid suicide!
I would avoid this place. They are paying $125 ($35k less than $160, which almost everybody else in DC is paying). Assuming that the average person is there for 3 years, that means that you "give up" $105,000 in compensation. That's a hell of a lot of $$$. In contrast, I believe Hogan's 1800 track pays $145.
This is another step in the slow but inevitable march to the day when associates will be paid as hourly employees. That's a good thing. Firms bill associates by the hour, so it makes sense that associates should be paid by the hour. In recessions such as the one we're presently in, this model would inflict fewer layoffs than the lockstep model because payroll costs would automatically fluctuate in sync with the firm's profitability. In the boom times, associates would be fairly compensated for sacrificing their lives to bill 12-hour days. Regardless of the economy, those who prefer a humane work-life balance (e.g., people with kids, friends, or hobbies) could bill 1700 hours a year and still make a reasonable income. Someday maybe.
Ummmm 8,
Everyone I know wants a Lathaming. Six months of pay with full health insurance? You really believe you could not line something up by October? (And really six months biglaw pay can easily last more than six months).
You not only would have ample time to get another job but you'd have time to go on a lot of fun vacations. Or enjoy all the things in DC/NYC/Chicago/LA etc that you never get to do while working more than full time.
Give me a break. Everyone wants the Latham six month severance present unless you are a douche who thinks they have a chance at partner.
WR is a sinking ship: even Fielding didn't go back.
I aint no meteorologist but I believe its raining bitches
40,
A huge portion of the associate pool is going to leave the big law firm life anyway. Some of us would not mind leaving with six months pay.
Man, are they going to get hammered with reliance actions (ie promissory estoppel) or what? Obviously the associates must have been relying on the higher track salary figure -- and if they acted on that reliance, then Wiley is toast. I'm sure in the days of Fred Fielding, someone would have read Section 90 before doing this.
I agree with 48. Instead of deferrals and salary cuts they should ask associates to sign up to leave the firm for six months severance. I know of at least 10 people at my firm hoping and praying and wishing that our firm will do this.
Wow, in my 5 years in Biglaw, I never billed more than 1900 hrs in a year and got full (inflated) salary each year, plus performance bonuses too. Also got a signing bonus when I switched firms. Play the system; don't let it play you.
Oh wait. Times have changed. Good luck, SUCKAHS!!!!
Hey Elie,
Happy San Jacinto Day!
MysTTTal
You people are idiots. If they end up making 1800 hours, they get deferred compensation and end up getting everything they would have made anyway. Same goes if they somehow miraculously make 1950. Wiley always pays someone who works the full hours the full salary in the end.
Who eats more tacos? Ellie
This sucks. 125k in DC is enough, but not that great. Sorry Wiley people. I don't know who would willingly take the 1800 track and not bill the extra .8 a day necessary to make 1950. Seems like they've set the comp structure just right so no one would choose that path.
Maybe Obama will decide to re-regulate the telecomms???
55: "Maybe Obama will decide to re-regulate the telecomms???"
i doubt it highly :(
That's a huge pay difference for 150 billable hours. The ratio is not 1:1. Strange.
This is not news; it's been the firm policy for years. If you're not interested in FCC work, prof liability, or government contracts, Wiley's a waste of time. And, when the FCC work gets serious enough, the client typically jumps ship for Kellogg anyways. Wiley is and always has been a lifestyle firm for most associates.
This is not news; it's been the firm policy for years. If you're not interested in FCC work, prof liability, or government contracts, Wiley's a waste of time. And, when the FCC work gets serious enough, the client typically jumps ship for Kellogg anyways. Wiley is and always has been a lifestyle firm for most associates.
BREAKING NEWS : Partner Emeritus is doing one hour overtime work at the other side of the glory hole!
--Mohammad
Really hard time seeing the problem here. Market in DC for first years was ~125k not more than 5 years ago, so getting by should be managable (particularly in comparison to being laid off). The real shitty part of this deal is that the difference between being on pace for 1800 and 1950 is less than 40 hours -- in an entire quarter! I imagine lots of people aren't on pace for even 1800, but I'd guess that the majority of folks who are on pace for 1800+ would have found a way to bill another 40 hours over the course of 3 months if they knew their salaries were hanging in the balance.
This would be much more interesting at a non-lifestyle firm, though. I'd imagine lots of junior associates would give serious consideration to 125k plus some nominal bonus for 1800 hours compared to the current ~200k for 2400+ hours. On second thought, in BigLaw world, when the market picked back up, the 1800 hour track would be eliminated without warning and everyone who selected that track would be fired...
CAN'T STOP THE REIN!!!!!!!
I don't see the 'involuntary' aspect, at least from that excerpt. Seems that associates that bill 1800 will get paid $125k. Those that bill 1950 will make $160K. Those that bill 1875 will make somewhere in between. Where is the evidence that the firm is forcing associates into one group or another and refusing to pay a given associate more if they bill more hours?
oh my god. If it weren't for the $160K, I wouldn't have done this job for as long as I did. Ok, the first year where you do nothing but check for grammar and typos, the $160K is pretty sweet. But then when you start putting up with all the bullshit and working the insane hours as a more senior associate, the six figures BigLaw firms make us crawl around for is barely worth the b.s. we put up with.
I actually enjoyed practicing law...when I was actually practicing it. the majority of my time I was navigating political landmines, trying to avoid gossip and squabbling, trying to get my secretary to actually do her job, wondering how idiots can scan documents in side ways, trying not to get run over by everyone else's gigantic fricking egos.
Yes, let's reduce the salary but realize this, most of us would not have put up with BigLaw B.S. if not for the money. Maybe the effect, down the road, is that more of us will do something meaningful with our lives instead of make rich clients richer and egotistical partners more egotistical.
www.laidoffdiary.wordpress.com
For the love of Pete.
Shut. Up. Already.
No one cares that you hate your jobs and, likely, yourselves, you deluded, whiny, self-important dbags. Enough's enough.
Quit. Get fired. Stay and work. Do what you want. Just quit your pathetic bitching already.
I don't understand the big law mentality. People complain about working the hours but they complain when there is less money. Why don't the big firms wise up and offer 2 people $100k a year, for 1400 billable requirements. You get better quality of work because neither of the two associates are killing themselves. The associates are happier and there's more flexibility in the matters you can assign them too. Maybe the generation before us decided that money was more important that balance, but it seems that more and more people HATE their lives when they come out of school and work their souls away.
A 35K reduction for want amounts to one months' worth of lower billables is really harsh.
66 -- Think about it. If you're a law firm, you'd much rather have two associates making $160k billing 2k hours per year. The firm makes up the $60k and then some.
There is a track lower than 1800 as well -- I think it is 1650. When faced with the choices of billing 1650 and making less money or getting fired in this market, I'll take the money instead of the pink slip.
66 - I don't know any Big Firm Associate, other than mothers who have gone to PT for family reasons, that would be willing to go down to 1400 hours for 100k. The attitude I encounter is that since I'm willing to work 1950, I should be paid 1950; its not my fault that there is no work.
April 21, 2009 6:11 PM
Insurance Company Challenges Latham's Fees
Posted by Drew Combs
$450 per hour for a Latham & Watkins associate who hasn't passed the bar? Insurer Century Indemnity Company claims that's what Latham billed in an ongoing toxic tort case, and it calls the fee excessive. The alleged overcharge is one of the reasons Century filed a petition to compel arbitration on Friday against Latham and firm client Montrose Chemical Corporation of California in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Is it 4/20 yet?
[Takes puff of joint...]
-Michael Phelps
As a former WRF associate, I can tell you that the idea of being a "lifestyle" firm left the building somewhere around 2001s when they raised their salaries like everyone else in town. Before the 1800 and 1950 tracks, the billing goal was 1850 with more flexibility for the PAB to give some credit for large amounts of hours worked on non-billable matters (including some pro bono).
I remember a time when associates visited "greedy associates" board to compare salaries and perks so that we could use that information to get our firms to match them. Now associates come here to compare information on layoff and delayed start dates. What a difference ten years makes.
44, you are either a yet to be fired associate or Latham PR. There are absolutely no jobs out there for juniors, especially those who have been defamed by being laid off. Why don't you talk to a recruiter and see what happens. I should be thankful for having my career ruined for extra 3 months severance? I would have been more thankful if the firm did not lie to me and did not recruit me - at most other firms, I would still have a job instead of severance.
SECOND-RATE FIRM CUTS ASSOCIATE SALARIES, ADMITS INFERIORITY, ACCEPTS FUTURE INABILITY TO RECRUIT TOP TALENT