SchulTTTe

Not first.

The stovetop is very hot. Please do not touch the stovetop.

The edit date on the document was 3/17, so if we haven't heard anything yet, I think we are safe.

The edit date on the document was 3/17, so if we haven't heard anything yet, I think we are safe.

Thanks for the Vault update Elie.

/s/ the guy who requested the vault stuff.

It's a trap!

YOUTUBE OF ELIE (GUY IN SUIT @ 1:35)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pyW6w5B7Aw

There is a salary cut memo with my name on it, but I did not open it so it does not apply to me.

DUM DUM DUMMMMMM

If I don't click on it, it can get me. But if I do click on it, it will most certainly get me because then they will know upstairs that I read it.

DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUMMMMM

When they come around to fire you, just don't pick up the phone or open your door.

7 here again -- this is obviously something to watch; it may be that SZR was waiting for a peer firm to kickoff this plan. With NP firing the the first shot, SZR can easily follow suit.

Nervous 1L's cousin - Annoying yet sometimes helpful 2nd year Associate - should start scouring the doc server now.

This is just another example of how stupid law firm management is...how difficult would it be to have a staff member (God knows there enough of them) create the docs with code names and password protected?

This same crap happened all the time at my old firm. All you had to do was search "write off" and you'd find dozens of documents with detailed write off letters (and client complaints).

How dumb are these people?

What a cheap-ass, Brooklyn firm. The stealth layoffs sucked. Then (even though they eventually raised salaries) they waited forever to see what other firms would do first. It now seems that not enough "peer" firms cut salaries, so they just keep the memo in the hopper until they can pull it out. The partners should be ashamed.

9: Thanks! LOL!!!

i hope they cut salaries/lay people off so everyone will know what a garbage heap Shulttte is

Over the weekend, I attended a golf outing with a couple of colleagues that are partners of peer firms. They are feeling the pinch of this economic tsunami. They are holding out on adopting my hybrid tough love package. However, I sense that a couple of more bad revenue months and the system will start to disintegrate. Prestige will be thrown to the curbside in favor of profits. I predict this blog will break the first instance of a peer firm adopting my hybrid tough love package by July.

Isn't McDermott about to do the same thing?

This is really dumb - every time you register for a 401(k) here at Schulte they make you sign a salary reduction agreement - it's a scary name but I must have signed at least 3 since I got here. There is one on the system with my name on it too. You should verify that this isn't the old 401(k) form.

This is really dumb - every time you register for a 401(k) here at Schulte they make you sign a salary reduction agreement - it's a scary name but I must have signed at least 3 since I got here. There is one on the system with my name on it too. You should verify that this isn't the old 401(k) form.

The fact there's a memo of that nature doesn't mean a great deal in and of itself. Most firms are engaged in all kinds of contingency planning, including associate salary reductions, "downsizing" plans (read additional layoffs), etc. Implementation likely is dependent on future circumstances.

Well, if SRZ was sitting on this before and mulling their options, you have to expect they'll just do the salary cut now. After all, they've already taken the PR hit thanks to the brain-dead associate that sent in this tip. Nice job, person!

So. let me make sure I understand....

You wrote a blog post about the contents of a memo that no one has actually read?

What incredible journalism....

Schulte should write a memo on their document management system titled "why we're a third-tier-toilet, wanna-be Cravath, try and keep everything secret, horrible PR skills, ass backward, no management skills, reactionary, Cerberus lovin' crap firm."

SkaddenDC will be doing something similar by weeks end.

Beware the month immediately following the end of a firm's fiscal quarter.

Shut your mouth @25.

N. Wacker Stud

The document was created on 3/25 and only includes first year through fourth year associates. Apparently fifth year and more senior are considered valuable. Way to create a rift among employees in a firm where morale is beyond low and loyalty has become non-existent. Schulte partners should be ashamed of themselves. PPP are released the same week as stealth layoffs are conducted and the discovery of a salary reduction memo.

What's going on with the big PA firms in terms of salary cuts? Morgan Lewis, K&L Gates, Reed Smith, Dechert etc.?

"As we understand it, so far everybody who has checked for the memo has found it, so it doesn't appear that the salary cut is limited to just one class of people."

Elie, are you retarded?

THE NAME SAYS IT ALL

What is the difference between Texas and a gay pissing contest?

23,
Well done. SR&Z is a monumental piece-of-garbage firm.

22- "So. let me make sure I understand....

You wrote a blog post about the contents of a memo that no one has actually read?

What incredible journalism...."

22- you're a moron. This is a BLOG. You want news- go to MSNBC or CNN. Oh yeah- stop watching "The Daily Show" for your nightly news update and stop reading "The Onion" on the train.

25 - I am afraid you are correct, although that was probably April for most, if not all.

actually, all you have to do is "send" the document. when you do that, it creates an email with the doc as an attachment. you can open the document from there. obviously, you don't actually send it since that creates a record of accessing the doc. but if you don't send it, then I don't see how any record of accessing the doc would be created . . . but then again, I'm not an IT guy.

-- Not an IT Guy

25 - I am afraid you are correct, although that was probably April for most, if not all.

16 -

No firm, "peer" or otherwise, is going to cut salaries and layoff associates in the middle of the summer as long as summer associates are on the premises.

You, sir, are an idiot.

in a word, disgusting. (talking about the PPP while still cutting salaries - greed is amazing)

"As we understand it, so far everybody who has checked for the memo has found it, so it doesn't appear that the salary cut is limited to just one class of people."

Elie, are you retarded?

I think someone should look into 18/19's comments regarding the 401(k).

Also, someone should ask 27 how s/he knows that the memo affects only 1 to 4 year associates. Is 27 saying s/he read it? Or that s/he drafted it?

Curiouser and curiouser...

This is no different from newspapers that have obituaries for famous people pre-written and ready to go when said famous people kick the bucket. It is just good business.

37 - SRZ already conducted layoffs while summers are in-office. They are in a downward spiral and are too incompetent to handle it. The layoffs conducted two weeks ago become effective end of June. The only work the summers will even have is to help carry the boxes of associates leaving!

Idiots....

Assuming the document is in word, put word in the "preview mode" then preview it without opening.

As an alternative, copy it off of the network without opening it, and then open that one.

3rd year with computer skills.

Idiots....

Assuming the document is in word, put word in the "preview mode" then preview it without opening.

As an alternative, copy it off of the network without opening it, and then open that one.

3rd year with computer skills.

Idiots....

Assuming the document is in word, put word in the "preview mode" then preview it without opening.

As an alternative, copy it off of the network without opening it, and then open that one.

3rd year with computer skills.

Good idea if it saves jobs. Admit it people, associates are overpaid when there isnt enough work. 160k+ only works when people are billing 2000+ hours a year.

I will happily take a pay cut if it means my job is safer. ALL associates, including incoming first years, 2Ls and even 1Ls should be PRAYING that more firms do this.

34,36: The first round of layoffs at many firms didn't comport with this schedule, but firms have become more methodical in their approach to cost cutting as time goes on. Some firms are on an October 31 fiscal year which, for them, means April 30 was the end of the second fiscal quarter for 2009.

Someone should follow up on 18/19's theory about the 401(k).

Also, can a firm really be so stupid as to send a single memo about salary cuts to a handful of people but include all of their names on that memo?

I mean, there's supposedly a memo that goes like this?

"Dear Sally, Frank, Nathan, Laurie, and Seth: Your salaries have been reduced. Love, Shulte" ? REALLY?

This is clearly the kind of thing most places would want to handle in "BCC" format, don't you think?

I believe this document is our 401(k) retirement contribution agreement. It is called an Associate Salary Reduction Agreement. It is updated everytime you change the contribution rate to your 401(k). Most likely there is a similar document on most law firms systems.

Can someone just blog or twitter it to their Compuserve account?

Great scoop. You are reporting on documents on a file server which have not yet been released. The next step would be to live-blog the secretary typing the memo.

42 -

1. Two weeks ago was the middle of April. There were no summer associates on the premises at that time;

2. April is not July; and

3. PPP of $2,290,000 - that is some downward spiral.

48: Maybe the memo summarizes the people who have 401(k)s?

It is not a memo. It is a table with associates' names, class year and reduction in pay amounts. It has nothing to do with 401(k)

SR&Z, I'd like to officially welcome you to the ranks of crappy TTT firms that do stealth layoffs and massive associate paycuts in order to protect PPP.

I know you are prestige whores and like to compare yourselves to T10 firms, but now your new peers are crap Ohio firms like Thompson Hine. Congratulations.

A note to the partners at Thompson Hine - if you are going to be such incompetent assholes and slash associate salaries and do constant layoffs in order to hide your own inability to incorporate proper risk management into how you grow your business... well, if you're going to do all that you should really be sure to layoff all of the associates that don't have enough work. Otherwise, we'll just sit in our offices on ATL while you pay us to talk about how shitty it is to work here.

Seems harsh, but one good deed deserves another and your shitty management cost me roughly 1/6th of my salary, all of my job security, and most of the (small to begin with) prestige of working here.

SR&Z, I'd like to officially welcome you to the ranks of crappy TTT firms that do stealth layoffs and massive associate paycuts in order to protect PPP.

I know you are prestige whores and like to compare yourselves to T10 firms, but now your new peers are crap Ohio firms like Thompson Hine. Congratulations.

A note to the partners at Thompson Hine - if you are going to be such incompetent assholes and slash associate salaries and do constant layoffs in order to hide your own inability to incorporate proper risk management into how you grow your business... well, if you're going to do all that you should really be sure to layoff all of the associates that don't have enough work. Otherwise, we'll just sit in our offices on ATL while you pay us to talk about how shitty it is to work here.

Seems harsh, but one good deed deserves another and your shitty management cost me roughly 1/6th of my salary, all of my job security, and most of the (small to begin with) prestige of working here.

SR&Z, I'd like to officially welcome you to the ranks of crappy TTT firms that do stealth layoffs and massive associate paycuts in order to protect PPP.

I know you are prestige whores and like to compare yourselves to T10 firms, but now your new peers are crap Ohio firms like Thompson Hine. Congratulations.

A note to the partners at Thompson Hine - if you are going to be such incompetent assholes and slash associate salaries and do constant layoffs in order to hide your own inability to incorporate proper risk management into how you grow your business... well, if you're going to do all that you should really be sure to layoff all of the associates that don't have enough work. Otherwise, we'll just sit in our offices on ATL while you pay us to talk about how shitty it is to work here.

Seems harsh, but one good deed deserves another and your shitty management cost me roughly 1/6th of my salary, all of my job security, and most of the (small to begin with) prestige of working here.

For those hating on SRZ for having the 10th highest PPP and potentially trimming salaries (and stealth layoffs), here's an idea.

Schulte would be smart to wait until things get really bad. Then they just lay people off and lose a lot of talented people in the process. Planning ahead is never a good idea. Being realistic is also a terrible idea. In fact, planning ahead and being realistic are not what lawyers do. Lawyers are supposed to be terrible business people. Therefore, SRZ's preemptive moves are totally uncalled for, and the management team should be ashamed of itself for trying to weather the storm before the worst of it hits.

SR&Z, I'd like to officially welcome you to the ranks of crappy TTT firms that do stealth layoffs and massive associate paycuts in order to protect PPP.

I know you are prestige whores and like to compare yourselves to T10 firms, but now your new peers are crap Ohio firms like Thompson Hine. Congratulations.

A note to the partners at Thompson Hine - if you are going to be such incompetent assholes and slash associate salaries and do constant layoffs in order to hide your own inability to incorporate proper risk management into how you grow your business... well, if you're going to do all that you should really be sure to layoff all of the associates that don't have enough work. Otherwise, we'll just sit in our offices on ATL while you pay us to talk about how shitty it is to work here.

Seems harsh, but one good deed deserves another and your shitty management cost me roughly 1/6th of my salary, all of my job security, and most of the (small to begin with) prestige of working here.

Anyone else tired of Partner Emeritus?

SR&Z, I'd like to officially welcome you to the ranks of crappy TTT firms that do stealth layoffs and massive associate paycuts in order to protect PPP.

I know you are prestige whores and like to compare yourselves to T10 firms, but now your new peers are crap Ohio firms like Thompson Hine. Congratulations.

A note to the partners at Thompson Hine - if you are going to be such incompetent assholes and slash associate salaries and do constant layoffs in order to hide your own inability to incorporate proper risk management into how you grow your business... well, if you're going to do all that you should really be sure to layoff all of the associates that don't have enough work. Otherwise, we'll just sit in our offices on ATL while you pay us to talk about how shitty it is to work here.

Seems harsh, but one good deed deserves another and your shitty management cost me roughly 1/6th of my salary, all of my job security, and most of the (small to begin with) prestige of working here.

45,

You can't even preview it without the system registering that you did so. Try again, idiot.

SR&Z, I'd like to officially welcome you to the ranks of crappy TTT firms that do stealth layoffs and massive associate paycuts in order to protect PPP.

I know you are prestige whores and like to compare yourselves to T10 firms, but now your new peers are crap Ohio firms like Thompson Hine. Congratulations.

A note to the partners at Thompson Hine - if you are going to be such incompetent assholes and slash associate salaries and do constant layoffs in order to hide your own inability to incorporate proper risk management into how you grow your business... well, if you're going to do all that you should really be sure to layoff all of the associates that don't have enough work. Otherwise, we'll just sit in our offices on ATL while you pay us to talk about how shitty it is to work here.

Seems harsh, but one good deed deserves another and your shitty management cost me roughly 3/4th of my salary, all of my job security, and most of the (small to begin with) prestige of working here.

@60 - yes. His schtick got boring months ago, but he won't give it up (or actually think of something creative to say).

Hey 54,

This is obviously 401k related. Its the exact same name as the 401k doc and SRZ hasn't cut salaries. If this doc is from March then the plan was in place prior to the layoffs and the cuts would have been made then, not long after.

As for the claims its a table, gimme a break. You really mean to tell me that the firm accidentally posted a comprehensive table of whose salary would be reduced by how much? Sorry, not buying that for a moment. If it is a table, I'm more than a little dubious 54 actually saw the doc, then its much more likely a table summarizing people's 401k contribution rates. The logic from its a table, to clearly its not 401k related, is more than a little flawed 54. In the future, absent someone actually producing a memo that appears somewhat accurate maybe ATL could hold off blasting a firm prematurely. Or, oh I don't know, as for comment from the firm?

At my firm people used to go into the computer training room when no one was in there, log on to the document retention system on one of the training computers by using one of the "training passwords" (assigned to brand new employees before their usernames and passwords are assigned), and open up sketchy documents that way. I've never done it myself, but supposedly that's one way to get away with opening up docs you're not supposed to see.

54 - Why wouldn't 5th year associates and higher be included in the "401(k)" doc? And why was the author an accounting staffer rather than a Benefits/HR staff member? And why is the document mysteriously now missing and off the system? If it was an innocuous 401K list, why stealthily remove it? I respect your attempts at spin control, but this is another example of how SRZ disrespects its employees.

Was this comment thread the plot for the film "Sneakers"?

67 - because accounting cuts the checks not HR. Therefore accounting needs to know the reduction amount and use it to calculate the appropriate salary levels. As for 5th years, a) maybe thats not true and 5th years were on there or b) maybe they were only mostly done generating the list or c) a different accounting staffer is responsible for the more senior people's checks. As for why its missing from the system, its probably because it shouldn't have been there in the first place since thats confidential information...and how does one not "stealthily" remove a document. Should a firmwide email have been sent out "Hey, so and so from accounting here, I accidentally made a doc public I shouldn't have and am now making it private."?

I'm going to write a memo titled "Salary Raise for that 2nd Year Associate in Office #___" and see if it generates this kind of self fulfilling prophecy hype! If you write it, it shall happen!

What's the word down in Texas about salary cuts. Baker Botts? V&E? AK? Fulbright?

This is wild, unmitigated speculation akin to a group of 5th graders placing their ears against a closed door and attempting to divine the conversation occuring on the other side.

Great work, ATL. How very high brow of you.

Idiot 43, Idiot 44 and Idiot 45,

See if your fancy puter skillz include an area on how to avoid repetitive posting of a single lame-ass comment.

You can also log in through CITRIX and open the sketchy document that way.

This is deeply irresponsible journalism and it is actually bad for associates. The more news and names that get associated with salary cuts (however false the reports), the more cover firms will get to actually lower salaries.

Thanks, Elie.

Why not just wait until the memo is released? Why post this now? What purpose does it serve (besides garnering more clicks and therefore more ad revenue because you're too damn lazy to write about anything interesting)?

Schulte should write a memo on their document management system titled "why we're a third-tier-toilet, wanna-be Cravath, try and keep everything secret, horrible PR skills, ass backward, no management skills, reactionary, Cerberus lovin' crap firm."

Schulte should write a memo on their document management system titled "why we're a third-tier-toilet, wanna-be Cravath, try and keep everything secret, horrible PR skills, ass backward, no management skills, reactionary, Cerberus lovin' crap firm."

37 - SRZ already conducted layoffs while summers are in-office. They are in a downward spiral and are too incompetent to handle it. The layoffs conducted two weeks ago become effective end of June. The only work the summers will even have is to help carry the boxes of associates leaving!

ATL rules. This is investigative journalism at its finest. I love that associates found this document and weren't afraid to tip ATL about it. On the flip side, SR&Z is a cheap, secretive, no class, wanna-be firm, that rode the hedge fund bubble up and now will pop along with it. Have some class on the way down SR&Z. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" should not be your one and only PR response everytime you mess up. LOSER firm.

opened! my salary will be reduced by 10% but no date on memo so not sure when it will go into effect.

opened! my salary will be reduced by 10% but no date on memo so not sure when it will go into effect.

The ship be sinking...

I have some real doubts about the accuracy of ATL's reporting after they were several weeks late in reporting SRZ's reporting of incomings being deferred and the "layoffs"

81 = either bullsh*t or an idiot. no one (you would think) would be stupid enough to actually open the memo and then post on ATL.

81 = full of it seeing as the doc is no longer on the system. Also, this story couldn't be less substantiated.

As for those hating on SRZ. I know, few layoffs, market bonuses, above market bonuses for high billers, above market deferral options, very few limitations on investments and 10th in PPP. Wow, really going down hill. God, if only I worked somewhere else, I hate when my firm makes lots of money and offers compensation in line with or better than just about all its contemporaries. What a TTT, why do I work here.

Seriously though, I just don't understand what people have against Schulte. Good firm, good people, good money...whats the issue here?

Shame on you, 58, 60 and 62, for ruining what certainly would have been the record for most contiguous repeat postings by 55/56/57/59/61/63.

86, which group are you a partner in?

Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but Schulte is TTT.

Ship be sinking!

SRZ = STTTZ

the memo was reductions for years 1 through 4
real easy to do checks on 401 contributions since those are on the system also
Smart thing would be some damage control but they're not smart just greedy
Hey 86 - what dope are you shooting?

Bad news for Kirkland and other really profitable firms...

Don't be an alarmist, 192. Schulte has had no cuts. At least not yet...

LATHAM WILL BE REDUCING ITS SALARIES BELOW 145 TO CONTINUE THEIR RUN FOR DOUCHEBAG FIRM OF THE DECADE.

58 -- what obvious flame. Schulte has no "talent" to protect. All of these lower-level firms should drop associate salaries to $100K or less. Who are they competing with for recruits? That Schulte associates make the same amount of money as former harvard law review circuit clerks from DPW or S&C is pure economic insanity, and borders on an act of charity. Time to wake up from the dream, Schulte associates.

95 is an idiot. Firms like Schulte can use the financial crisis to improve its standing and improve its talent. Schulte can afford to avoid salary cuts if less profitable firms go that route. They'd still some talent for sure.

95, how can you possibly be this dumb? In what world wouldn't Shulte use this to actually improve its talent? profitable but non-presitigious firm decrease to $100K when it could instead use the opporutunity to compete with higher-ranked firms? Laughable. You fail common sense.

95, you are dumber than shitstains. You probably work at some shitty NJ firm because you flunked the logical reasoning section of the LSAT and ended up at New York Law School.

I actually agree with 95.

There are a lot of non-peer firms paying 160K that have no business doing so.

Premium salaries (and talent) should be reserved for premium firms.

98, you are also not very smart. Firms that don't have the prestige OR the PPP are only paying $160K to save face. They really shouldn't be.

But firms that are less presitigous but still really profitable like Schulte should pay top dollar. Even in boomtimes they'll get marginally better talent than they would otherwise. But certainly now if less profitable firms cut salaries and Schulte does not, they'll see an improvement in the caliber of lawyer they can attract.

I love how snobby some folks are. Harvard can turn out a crappy lawyer just as easily as any other law school. The admissions standards at the "top" law schools are so skewed that "what school you went to" is rarely a reliable proxy for how good of a lawyer you will ultimately be.

Get over yourselves people and get back to work!

I agree with 100. I went to Harvard and there are some extremely dumb people there. Just because someone scored a 175 on their LSAT and got into Harvard doesn't mean anything in the real world. Most people at Harvard didn't have social skills or thought they were god's gift so they didn't have to work hard at being a good lawyer. Since joining the real world I have seen the majority of these T-10 grads spend all of their time in the library at their firm turning out work while other non-T-10 students have done depos or assisted a partner in negotiating a deal.

To be a successful lawyer you have to know more than the law, you have to bring in business and be able to communicate effectively with your clients. Those braniacs fail at any sort of business or social sense.

I can't tell you how many attorneys get yelled at by their clients (or a partner) simply because they don't understand anything besides black letter law.

Does that mean that associates from lower level schools are better attorneys -- obviously no, but after being in the real world I can tell you, on average, top 100 schools turn out just as many great lawyers as T-10 schools do.

look guys - I totally understand your prestige arguments (having gone thru the whole law school/law firm route), but some of you sound like minor 18th century european blue bloods. Aren't we living in America? Why disparage a firm like SRZ for doing well? Are you saying that the class structure is fixed and no one can rise above their rank? Smart, successful attorneys working their don't deserve to make the same amount of money because why ?? Sounds like you are a proponent of the caste system to me.

SRZ has an almost monopoly on the hedge fund market. I think HF's like them because they are quick and aggressive and just like the HF's (and not caught up in "class" distinctions). A bunch of smart people trying to get deals done.

Does being indoctrinated into the so called upper echelon firms guarantee you continued success? I doubt it - this is America - and its all a meritocracy - you need to be good, fast and aggressive to stay on top, and perhaps if you are a little slow, one of those lower-caste SRZ-type associates will leave you in the dust.

my guess -- one of the pranksters in the firm created an empty document with a scary name. that stuff happens a lot over there.