A partner voluntarily takes on some of the pain. That is newsworthy.

I wish my firm had people like that, but I work at Thompson Hine which is a shithole.

It was nice of Winokur to do that when he didn't have to. Admirable, even.

Did I miss the part where Barton Winokur actually matters?

Elie MysTTTal

The law is like nature, and young lawyers like the predators in the wild. The polar bear is the biggest badass, most powerful. The polar bear is also the most rigid. He must have a specific set of circumstances (thick pack ice over seal-filled oceans) in order to survive. The coyote is far less powerful. Not much of a badass. Kinda wimpy, really.

The polar bear is rigid, and now that circumstances are changed, he's soon to be extinct. The coyote, while less powerful is completely flexible - hunting anything, living anywhere, thriving no matter how circumstances change.

The question for young lawyers in this market: are you a polar bear or a coyote - dying or thriving - insisting on an entry level biglaw job that no longer exists in a metropolis that's overpopulated with your kind, or flexible to move location or change your expectations to survive in a changing world???

His cut was from $8 Million to $7 Million....no need for canonization.........

Almost firstacular!

4,

Very true. Associates should be telling clients about how they can provide the same services at a reduced cost compared to BigLaw.

If your parnter is an asshole, then TAKE his clients!

The law is like nature, and young lawyers like the predators in the wild. The polar bear is the biggest badass, most powerful. The polar bear is also the most rigid. He must have a specific set of circumstances (thick pack ice over seal-filled oceans) in order to survive. The coyote is far less powerful. Not much of a badass. Kinda wimpy, really.

The polar bear is rigid, and now that circumstances are changed, he's soon to be extinct. The coyote, while less powerful is completely flexible - hunting anything, living anywhere, thriving no matter how circumstances change.

The question for young lawyers in this market: are you a polar bear or a coyote - dying or thriving - insisting on an entry level biglaw job that no longer exists in a metropolis that's overpopulated with your kind, or flexible to move location or change your expectations to survive in a changing world???

Typically there is no press?? This thing was thrown by Reuters! I am reminded of the CYE episode where Ted Danson was the so-called 'anonymous' donor at a gallery opening...

Chairman and CEO of DECHERT was paid $8 million? That is absurd. $7 million is absurd, too, Dechert is not that great of a firm, it just blows my mind that they are paying anyone that much.

Maybe I'm old school, but I didn't realize that there were that many partners at large firms that made that much money. If there are, they sure shouldn't be at places like Dechert.

What an idiot.

10 = dumbass law student who still thinks Vault rankings matter.

Are the Derek Winokur and Deborah Winokur on the Dechert website related to Bart Winokur?

Promise story is toppled.

Mondics normally writes hard hitting stories on the favorite ice cream flavors of managing partners. This is about as hard hitting as he gets. Sadly, the number one source for information in Philadelphia law is ATL.

where is the outrage!

Before we get all excited about his generosity - it is not clear from the Inquirer article whether this actually involved (a) a surrender of shares / points (b) a reduction in the monthly draw ----which is usually only about 50% of total annual distributions - which could be offset by increased distributionsat year end (c) a reflection that shares/points are dropping in projected / actual value because of the recession. One hand ovation may be necessary.

Given the massive spending and outrageous budget deficit that Obama is pushing on America, someone (namely, the wealthy) must pay for his reckless fiscal measures. If Winokur was earning over $1M a year, I am sure under Obama's pernicious tax proposal, Winokur would only see 10% of that $1M. Essentially, Winokur only forfeited $100K (after taxes). This story is nothing but a cheap publicity stunt. I am not waiving any of my earnings. Associates won't appreciate it so there is no need to take drastic cuts on my dividends.

Who knew Mr. Belding practiced law?

Number 10- why should they not be at a place like Dechert? Is Dechert's 8million not green enough?

The real story here is that there was a "super-secret meeting of big-firm leaders." Winokur's pay cut is just a red herring designed to distrct from the fact, now confirmed by this article, that firms are fixing prices and associate salaries. Is there anyone with antitrust experience who can tell us whether they're allowed to do that?

PE's puny draw wouldn't allow him to waive shit anyway.

I'm a panda bear.

I just nutted in my mouth by accident.

Scott Baio

8 million!!! Wow...I didn't know non-plaintiffs lawyers could make that much...I wonder what the top guys at Cravath/WLRK/S&C make..

The ppp numbers you generally see reported are the mean. It's not at all unusual for top partners to be drawing mutiples of the equity partner average for their firms, though $8 mil is quite high.

13, Deborah's his daughter, and he makes her---a graduate of UPenn State and Columbia---work as a lowly staff attorney (shows you what kind of guy he really is):

http://www.dechert.com/lawyers/lawyers.jsp?pg=detail&id=570

A number of lawyers I've spoken with at Dechert question why he was being paid $8 million last year to begin with, considering the business he brought in and the hours he billed were considerably less than this. It is well known that there is a certain "inner circle" of the compensation committee that divides a large portion of the spoils to specific partners, regardless of their compensation to the firm.

A number of lawyers I've spoken with at Dechert question why he was being paid $8 million last year to begin with, considering the business he brought in and the hours he billed were considerably less than this. It is well known that there is a certain "inner circle" of the compensation committee that divides a large portion of the spoils to specific partners, regardless of their contribution to the firm.

I wonder if Winokur sacrificed the $1 million to save his job as firm chairman. I can't imagine that his fellow partners are too happy with him at the moment, given Dechert's steep recent decline.

2 - Guess no one is willing to touch you. Too bad (for everybody around you), but go on and tell us some more about not getting laid (off).

21 - I think there is a really good case for an antitrust lawsuit. There is clearly an implied agreement among the law firms which can easily be established using the concept of conscious parallelism. This meeting just served as the necessary plus factor. While we are at it, we should file an antitrust lawsuit against BarBri for illegal tying under the Clayton Act. They dominate the market and illegally tie the course and the books together. Clearly a violation. Now that Obama is committed to loosening up the antitrust rules, we should be able to win both cases. Anyone in?

The reduction is not much of a story since, if firm profits in 2009 were to decline more than 12 1/2%, a distinct possibility, his percentage of profits would actually increase.

my ass lobster ate a cock cake when it read this..

You know, if Winokur's wife and kids had been counting on that extra $ 1 million and since now it won't be forthcoming, I'm trying to brainstorm if there is something they can do, perhaps legally. Any thoughts folks?

I was going to get my dog neuticles (http://www.resteddoginn.ca/neuticles.php prosthetic canine testicles) but then I got the ax. Boy was he mad.

too bad no partner at my firm willingly took a $1million pay cut or else my dog would have some nice looking neuticles.

www.laidoffdiary.wordpress.com

What about Ballard Spahr?

35 - yeah, it's too bad his family couldn't estop him from making this decision. I bet he will end up breaking a few promises he made to his family with this pay cut.

Along with 33's comment, it is likely that he would have taken this pay cut anyway, simply based on a 12% drop in PPP. Announcing it does not make him a hero.

21 - Belding. Nice.

I suspect the firm's leadership all "volunteered" to take a haircut in their scheduled draws as a precursor to getting the knives out for their fellow partners. Once all the slicing and dicing is done, I doubt his pro rata share of the pie will have decreased, it likely will have increased (and if not, he'll get it back in the oversized bonus his flunkies approve every year). Those of you praising him for his "selfless" act are too ignorant of partnership economics to ever have a shot at being admitted to the club.

Dechert is 100% committed to the cutthroat lateral-growth model: they poach partners by insisting that they'll pay them higher multiples. Nothing wrong with that, except that it tends to produce festering morale hells like Cadwalader, Dewey LeBeof et al.
8 mil does seem pretty high for this guy, though, considering that some star bankruptcy rainmakers have only fetched about 3 mil per year (Luc Despins and Marty Beinenstock). I wonder how much Michael Sage was offered at Dechert to jump from OMM so soon after he joined?

13: no, winokur is just a title that dechert bestows on its most valuable members to denote their awesomeness. kind of like Singh.

Do Greg Jordan at Reed Smith and Peter Kalis at K&L make this much as well? That is an absurd amount for a firm like Dechert even by BigLaw standards.

It's actually more than $8m when you factor in the nepotism.

30, Winokur has crushed all internal opposition (not that there ever was any real opposition) with his reign of terror. Partners may be unhappy for various reasons, but no one is going to do anything about it. He'll leave when he decides he wants to leave, and not a moment sooner.

41, lateral model used to be (and probably still is) to pay some of these folks a little bit less than they might be getting today from their current firms, or could get today from a top tier firm, but after 2-3 years, if the book transfers, to provide a big increase for proven performance.

18 - You look like the kind of partner that collects moist bail money from prostitutes in jail. Isn't that right, Sniffy?

Why would the heads of multiple firms, who presumably are lawyers, allow it to be known that they gather together and hold very secret, very candid meetings? Did they invite justice department lawyers too?

Nobody earns their salary more than -- wait for it -- Mr. Evan Chesler. Each morning he passes my office on the way to his, my balls throb so badly they go numb. I just blew a load thinking about him.

Nobody earns their salary more than -- wait for it -- Mr. Evan Chesler. Each morning he passes my office on the way to his, my balls throb so badly they go numb. I just blew a load thinking about him.

Nobody earns their salary more than -- wait for it -- Mr. Evan Chesler. Each morning he passes my office on the way to his, my balls throb so badly they go numb. I just blew a load thinking about him.

Nobody earns their salary more than -- wait for it -- Mr. Evan Chesler. Each morning he passes my office on the way to his, my balls throb so badly they go numb. I just blew a load thinking about him.

Bart and the rest of the top 6 tiers of partners (about 20-25 partners in all), are all taking 20% less in draw this year with the understanding that if their performance as measured by the policy committee (composed of, guess who, almost entirely members of the top 6 tiers of partners) merits the return of that income than they will be made whole at the end of the year. Since Bart's performance is based on the firm's performance as opposed to his own practice, whether he gets the full amount back will depend on the firm's year. Others in the same compensation levels - Levander, Helm, Jones, Sullivan and the rest - will make their full draws if they have year that equal the types of years they've had in the past. So its a short term, save some cash flow during the year with the idea that it all comes back at the end unless the bottom falls out. Some sacrifice.

43. not even close. All you law students, go back to your books. You aren't going to make $8 or $9m in Philadelphia. This is a unique case. Morgan, Ballard, Pepper, Drinker et al aren't paying their chairs anywhere near that amount of money. And PTTTs (Pennsylvania Third Tier Toilets) like Reed and K&L certainly aren't. Those firms have more in common with Cozen than they do with Dekkert -- let alone PE's "peer" firms.

How much does his son Derek make and was he a partner at Cleary when Bart brought him over?

Can't say I am going to break out the St. Bart t-shirt over this gesture, cheap publicity stunt that it is. Vacation in St. Bart is obviously a different matter.

I wonder how much John Quinn made last year, given that he's at the #2 PPP firm and rules it like a dictator/oligarch. $20M?

Whatev - He is doing this for his own benefit and no one else's. The guy's a dick, and Dechert under his leadership has consistently treated its associates as badly as they think they can get away with. I have no sympathy or admiration for him.

Bart gets paid a lot of money for a couple reasons. A) The growth in Dechert's profits per partner over the last 10 years has been out of the park, especially compared to it's peer firms (it's currently 13th in PPP, and that's if you don't add back in prepaid expenses). As the CEO, Bart gets a lot of the credit for that growth and is compensated accordingly (as he would be at any company of similar size (regardless of industry) that experienced similar growth). At $7-8 million, the firm is probably getting a good price. B) Bart has a huge book of business, which would be even bigger if he didn't devote the majority of his time to firm management.

Bunch of freakin whiners. You bitch when they don't take pay cuts, now you bitch when they do.

Get over yourselves you overpaid, entitlement teat sucking pukes.

53.

Uh no.......passed over by CGS&H, so the rumor goes. Kept a seat warm in case junior couldn't make his bones in NY.

51 has it right. He/she left out the part about whacking and dequitizing more colleagues. This was a calculated move intended to pave the way for other actions.

56 - Thanks for clarifying that, Bart.

57 - I actually enjoy the bitching. The more they bitch, the more I realize that law partners are finally getting their biz shit together.

In a few months, when you are at a stop light remember to tip the associate turned window washer just out of professional courtesy.

56 -- senior Dechert partner

This guy is the most disingenuous, egomaniacal publicity hound on earth. If the meeting was so secret, how come we know about it.

Bart has ruined hundreds of careers, and stomped on everyone he can on his way to the top, all in search of more and more money -- not because he needs more to spend, but because he wants to keep score.

This is just a cover for Dechert's precipitous fall in profits in 2009.

Bart should be tarred and feathered, not feted.

This guy is the most disingenuous, egomaniacal publicity hound on earth. If the meeting was so secret, how come we know about it.

Bart has ruined hundreds of careers, and stomped on everyone he can on his way to the top, all in search of more and more money -- not because he needs more to spend, but because he wants to keep score.

This is just a cover for Dechert's precipitous fall in profits in 2009.

Bart should be tarred and feathered, not feted.

"He must have a specific set of circumstances (thick pack ice over seal-filled oceans) in order to survive."

You've obviously never been to an Alaskan garbage dump, although the TTT you're attending probably approaches one. Polar bears evolved from regular bears to meet arctic conditions. They can just as easily go the other way. You're talking about an animal that can swim 80 miles at a stretch and live off discarded mayonnaise jars. There's a reason why its population has exploded since the 1950s. Anyway, the next time you're trying to be profound at least use a more apt "oak tree breaks, willow reed bends" analogy or something.

I'm not a partner, former partner, etc. Just stating a fact. The partners don't pay Bart his huge cut because they think he's a nice guy.

-56

60 - If you're not sure if they are a former associate just ask for them to show you their dildo.

test test test

What this article fails to point out is that Dechert's ratio between the highest paid partners (Bart and Andy Levander) and the lowest paid partners is among the highest in the world -- about 50:1.

In other words when you're screwing the majority of your partners by taking an exorbitant salary for yourself and a few cronies for many years, a 12% paycut is really an empty gesture.

Why won't this guy just get anal cancer and die?

69 - If he had your dildo, he probably would...oh that is called something else.

The ratio of highest to lowest paid partners is closer to 40:1, but the point is valid.

Supposedly hard-core firms like Skadden and Cleary and Simpson Thacher are incredibly egalitarian compared to Dechert's eat-what-you-kill attitude towards compensation. The ratio of highest to lowest paid partners is closer to 5:1 or 7:1 -- without the purgatory of income partner status.

No partner in their right mind with less than $10 million in immediately portable business should lateral to Dechert -- of course, that's exactly how Bart & Co. wants it. Even then, though, one down year and you're out on your ass, no matter what you've done for Dechert in the past.

68, did you really mean to say there are junior/service partners at Dechert who are making around 160K (Winokur's 8MM is 50 times the junior partners)? Did you mean to refer to junior employees (i.e., first and second-year associates)?

Otherwise, that is a crazy compensation scheme.

Whether it's 50:1($8 Mil / 50 = $160K) or 40:1 ($8 Mil / 40 = $200K), why would a partner at Dechert ever work for less than a 4 year associate's base salary? Could there be some special circumstances at play (like the fact that Dechert has a full-time dedicated pro-bono partner)?

Lots of guys at my high school cut their draw by 1million per year. It was no big deal.

71: if it's eat what you kill, then how come people like artie newbold, steve feirson and dan o'donnell take home a lot more than the $2 million average, even though they are doing primarily administrative duties? oh, because they're in with bartie-boy.

your status in this firm is entirely dependent on how much you suck up to the right people, even if you are a partner with a successful practice. no secret why dechert has had 50 percent turnover in partners in just 6 years.

enter at own risk.

ababababababababababababa

I think the $8m was 2007. For 2008 it might have been closer to $9m. And they used to start non-equity partners in the low 2s; don't know what they do now. It is a huge spread.

65 -- They pay Bart his huge cut because he has all the clout of South American military strong man. No one is willing to take him on. Those that could are bought off. What will be interesting to see with this firm is whether they can sustain it for another 5+ years, or if all the heavy hitters pack up and leave after their leader goes. Much higher risk here of a total implosion than some of the other major Phila fims, in my opinion.

73 -- Andy Levander earned more than Bart last year, so the ratio would be based off his comp. New partners may make around $250-300K (depending on the office), but a number of de-equitized partners in their 40's and 50's who are hanging on as service partners make less than that.

75 -- I have been told there are other things one can suck in order to preserve status in that firm

Reliable sources tell me that Bart took home $12 million from the firm in 2008.

78 -- is Levander the heir apparent? or is Bart still like Joe Paterno, refusing to acknowledge that a succession plan might be good management.

81 - both. Bart has had the firm's bylaws amended four times to allow him to serve additional terms as Chairman (Mao), and to waive the mandatory retirement age.

TIME FOR A RALPH BAXTER PAY CUT.

I call bullshit. Winokur is getting paid less because Dechert is tanking and he isn't bringing in as much money. If you think altruism is involved here, then you are stupider than you look.

32: Keep on dreaming and good luck proving your case.

No way he's worth anywhere in the same stratosphere as $8M. Almost all is time is managing the firm, and a professional manager can do the job for $1M and not completely screw up the firm.

Oh Backdoor Bart. How was Joe Jamail not the end of you?

To someone's earlier question, the only spawn of Bart who works at Dechert is Derek. He also happens to be (at least as of a couple years ago) the only person ever to lateral as an associate from a different firm to a partner at Dechert. Rumor was that upset many people who had been toiling away with the expectation of inheriting some of Bart's book of business. The only Winokur of the Bart lineage who is worth a damn is Jimmy: http://www.jimmywinokur.com/AAPages/prose-2.htm (make sure you scroll to the bottom to see the letter he wrote his brother when he was in high school - the guy was clearly always a colossal d-bag).

Yes, Boy Wonder Derek Winokur was passed over for partnership at Cleary. He was told he was never going to make it there, in fact. Lateraled to Dechert, going from a 10th year associate with no business, to an income partner. First and only time that has happened.

Now that Daddy is feeding him all his clients, like Citigroup Venture Capital, no doubt he will be promoted to equity partner at the end of '09.

Hard to believe Bart is running a 1000-lawyer international law firm like the local family store . . but no one dare challenge him for fear of retribution.

Partners who have challenged him in the past have seen their comp severely and swiftly cut, and clients reassigned. Machiavelli has nothing on the Winokurs.

Thanks Mr. Dell. I'll make sure Latham pays a fair share of the treble damages.

- 32

Mr. Winkokur once told me he felt bad for the guy who was the top of his class at Harvard Law because that was the most he ever achieved - I wish I had the balls to have asked why he still cared, given it was over 40 years after they graduated, but instead I just smiled and nodded.

Mr. Winkokur once told me he felt bad for the guy who was the top of his class at Harvard Law because that was the most he ever achieved - I wish I had the balls to have asked why he still cared, given it was over 40 years after they graduated, but I just smiled and nodded.

Given Dechert's PPP I'm frankly shocked at Winokur's pay. Unless he's got a $30 million book year in and year out Dechert must be running an Akin Gump "Animal Farm" style partnership where a handful of partners are up on their hind legs eating off the silver in the farmhouse while the rest toil outside in the cold surviving on half rations.

That sounds about right.

4 - You're an idiot. You could have made your point in one sentence. I hate you.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I have actually worked with Derek and can vouch that he's an exceptionally good attorney. He'd be sucessful at any firm.

He's a Chairman and CEO. It's not surprising that he gets paid more in-line with executives than law firm Partners. You'll find that this is often the case. Managing Partners make more than the best trial lawyers, best corporate attorneys, and biggest rainmakers. But often, thought not always, they are excellent lawyers in thier own right aside from their managerial responsibilities. Anyhow, I think it's good that he took a pay cut.

Despite their best efforts (and shooting themselves in the foot for the longterm by engaging in excessive layoffs and cuts to remain profitability) many Partners are not going to be able to escapte this recession unscathed. They are going to see drops in their draw like everyone else. No matter what. Suck it up. Take a lesson from Clients. Most of us have seen a decrease in the pay we take home.

Bart once called Dechert's product liability litigation practice "monkey work" and thought the firm should discontinue it because it "wasn't sophisticated enough" for his taste.

Guess he's happy he didn't get his way on that one, now that litigation is the only thing going on at the firm these days . . .

Wow 88. Awesome find. Sounds like this guy has had an obsessive need to prove something his whole life. Must have a small penis.

This week were announced about new Dechert's office in Moscow. They've taken almost whole team from Moscow's Chadbourne. I wonder for what? Russian market is almost dead. To open new office is very expensive. Dechert laid off many lawyers to save money and the same time spend it in Russia.
Earlier BLP (UK) opened big new office in Moscow, but this month lays off 30 lawyers from London's office. I'm from Moscow and here's nothing to do. Almost all ILFs cut lawyers. What's the aim to set new offices?

99:

But, he makes up for his tiny wiener with a huge checking account.

Then again,............I guess he really doesn't. A few more zeros in the old bank account don't come close to compensating for a lack of something special, or at least average, down there.

My suspicion is that his dad, Morris, made him feel inadequate as a child. Or he was repeatedly stuffed in a locker in high school. Spending an entire adult life like he has must be compensating for something truly ingrained in his personal history.

I bet he has the Amlaw 100 put on his tombstone.

Why doesn't Ralph Baxter take a pay cut instead of laying off almost 400 people in the last year...?

In case you didn't know Mr. Winokur is a deuche. No, I have nothing else constructive to say.

It's ironic that Bart used to brag about Derek during his annual (painful) associate meetings -- the dude ended up being a failure at Cleary, and only through Dad's heavy-handed maneuvers did he revive his career.

I overheard a gaggle of partners say that Barf is an egomaniac who can brook no peer. In that way, he has suffocated the creativity and inventiveness of the firm. This is so much so that the turks are booting him out of the chair effective 2010. Faustian bargain may be ending and a real firm may emerge once Barf's world is discarded.

95 -- I agree. 4 should die in a kiln explosion. Probably a first-year law student who knows all there is to know about the world.

Former Dechert associate here. Bart is basically a glorified used car salesman--a smooth talking b.s. artist with a 120 IQ who wants everyone to think that he's a genius. His big plan was to jack up billing rates when the economy was booming--wow, what a visionary!

Back when I was a summer associate, I got stuck talking to his wife for about 45 minutes while we were on a Thames River cruise in London--she was annoying as hell, but the poor lady probably hadn't had anyone be polite and listen to her for 40 years.

Is it true that Dekkert is closing CA and Boston offices?