Sonnenschein Salary Update
Last week, we told you that Sonnenschein would be cutting its associate’s salaries. At the time, Sonnenschein pointed out the hit to first year salaries:
Our first year Associate base salary under the new approach will be set at $145,000 in most of the cities in which we operate, and the salary levels for the balance of our Associate classes vary by year and geography consistent with our standard practice.
What does “consistent with our standard practice” mean? Above the Law has received word on what the salary cuts will look like for the rest of Sonnenschein’s associates. Tipsters report:
* 2002 and above = 15%
* 2004 = 15%
* 2005 = 14%
* 2006 = 14%
* 2008 = 10%
Did anybody expect Sonnenschein to ask its more senior associates to take a larger pay cut than its junior associates?
More news from the firm after the jump.
Associates at Sonnenschein were taken aback by the significant cuts for more senior associates:
In view of Elliott’s redundant remarks regarding the disconnect between first year associate pay and value added by first year associates, SNR associates were led to believe that more experienced associates would be less affected by the pay cuts.
Tipsters also report that partners at the firm have been given talking points to use with firm clients:
Elliott also distributed an email to partners re how to spin the firm’s cuts. Partners are to notify clients that Sonnenschein associates are now not motivated to inflate billing because they have no monetary incentive to do so… Clients have not received a rate decrease.
But some tipsters are not worried about salary cuts. Instead, some associates are simply trying to hang onto their jobs:
Elliot & friends are literally evaluating attorneys month by month, week by week and if an attorney has a bad month (never mind the multi-year profitable performance leading up until now) they are labeled as “underperformers” and go on the chopping block. Definitely associates are being pushed out … The last round was approximately late March and another stealth round is or has happened following April’s performance.
Keep hanging on, Sonnenschein associates. It’s always darkest right before the dawn.
Earlier: Nationwide Salary Cut Watch: Sonnenschein Has Had Enough of Lockstep
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Comments
phirstie?
Obama chooses Sotoayor as SCOTUS nominee FIRST TO SAY
Obama chooses Sotomayor as SCOTUS nominee FIRST TO SAY
Obama chooses Sotomayor as SCOTUS nominee FIRST TO SAY
Obama chooses Sotomayor as SCOTUS nominee FIRST TO SAY
Well, I'd have preferred the 15% cut to getting laid off, but I chose to work at Paul Hastings.
Obama chooses Sotomayor as SCOTUS nominee FIRST TO SAY
This firm is a joke
Good luck recruiting against my firm.
Sonnenschein is so ghetto they make Ole Dirty Bastard look like Warren Buffet
Did Sonnenschein also freeze salaries? If so, you have 3rd years making 1200 dollars more than 1st years.
Good to be employed, but first years watch your back. Most associates will be upset with the Partnership but their hatred will soon turn to you.
Sonnenschein is so gay they make Richard Simmons look like Mike Tyson
I know they stated that they are going to a holistic billing approach but isn't the firm's talking points implying that associates will not be laid off based on billables? If billables still matter from a job retention standpoint then how does this approach eliminate the pressure on associates to pad hours?
Sonnenschein is so ugly they make Miley Cyrus look like a Lakers cheerleader
This sounds like the worst law firm to work for in the country. Insiders? Ex-associates? Anyone got war stories?
This idiot Elliot really wrote up some talking points saying that the firm's associates now don't have an incentive to pad their timesheets? What about before? Is Sonnenschein giving clients a refund for excess/false time billing?
I nominate Elliot for the Thelen Award for Excellence in law firm management.
Sonnenschein is so dumb they make yo' mama look like some asian looking person
Sonnenschein is so fat they make Rachel Ray look like Kate Moss
As an outsider looking in -- looks pretty dysfunctional from a management perspective,,,,
18 = gold
The ship be sinking...
wow. Ass backwards. Go figure.
As a law student in the bottom quartile of my class, I applaud anything firms do that does not eliminate positions. Maybe there will be hope for me yet!
I graduated mediocrum laude from my law school. Where can I find a job that doesn't require me to wear a hair net?
23 -- Use that optimism to start a new career, because that's your only hope.
I received an offer at one of their regional offices a few years ago. It just seemed like amateur hour.
This firm will not last. Partners forget that 5th year associates with be midlevel corporate counsel in 7 years. Fat chance marketing Sonnennschein to any person who has graduated law school since 2000. What a horrible reputation.
Sonnenschein is so impotent they make Elie Mystal look like Ron Jeremy
Of course we still have incentive to bill heavily. The only way we're guaranteed (and even then...) some amount of our salary cut back is by getting to 2000/2200 hours. If you get to 2000, you get back 50% of your cut. If you get to 2200, 100% of your cut. Sure it's a lot of hours for not a lot of dough, but still. It's hours-based incentives, Elliott.
Although honestly - you're right to think we don't have an incentive to bill. Or work. Or do anything except polish our resumes.
What do you expect from a firm that paid millions to Steve Kudenholdt, Paul Tvetenstrand, and their band of slack-gawed douchebag horribles? Go give 'em a big Sicilian kiss.
23 = EPIC FAIL
To be expected from a firm that would pay millions to Steve Kudenholdt, Paul Tvetenstrand, and the rest of their slack-jawed posse of douchebag blumpkins. You are paying for their kids' private school and their condos in South Beach. They destroyed peoples' lives.
Did Sonnenschein also freeze salaries? If so, you have 3rd years making 1200 dollars more than 1st years.
Good to be employed, but first years watch your back. Most associates will be upset with the Partnership but their hatred will soon turn to you
K&LGates next...
SkaddenLA is an absolute mess right now.
It occurs to me that firms like this, who I refer to collectively as Hacks! , constantly say they are re-evaluating their compensation structure and desire to move away from lock-step pay. Now, if you are trying to rid your hack-ass firm of lock-step pay, why would you employ lock-step pay cuts? Just a though...
-Denny Crane
13 & 16 - Agreed. These guys must actually be retarded. First, to tell your clients that your associates won't be padding hours ANYMORE. And second, to do so at a time when there is more incentive then ever to pad hours! What idiots, really.
Lat on CNN right now.
38th donut for MysTTTal today
Clients are entitled to a refund for prior years padding?
Is Lat gay? He sounds gay. Maybe its just being on TV that make you sound gay. He definitely sounds gay though.
As a 3L w/ a big firm job, let me be the first to say
Salary cuts to 145k >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>. Rescinded offers
41 - So cry me a river. Where else you gonna take an entry level job for a six figure salary?
40 - Go back to kindergarten
Sonnenschein so dumb they stared at the orange juice for an hour cause it said "concentrate."
Sonnenschein stealth layoffs. TTT.
Oh, I have a little dirt on the lit group of this toilet. A college friend of mine worked there a few years ago-what a dysfunctional shithole. The lit associates were told to enter hours *daily* and there was a shrewish lit partner who checked associate hours at the end of each day. If they entered less than 8, they had to call her the next morning and explain why. This woman also apparently walked around each week with a print-out of associate hours, telling different associates that each had the lowest total and that she was concerned for their future. She also tracked internet usage and would call and ask what they had been doing on x.com, or whatever. This made it very difficult to find another job.
He went to a call-back lunch for a lateral where the other (more senior) associate told the candidate something along the lines of "Look, you seem like a nice person. Do not come work here." Another associate kept a liquor stash in his/her office and the associates would hide in there and drink in the middle of the day.
He also worked with this toolish service partner who padded his bills on a big case like crazy (because he had no clients of his own).
42 - can you read?
41 said salary cuts are better than layoffs.
I tend to agree that the all powerful K&L Gates is next. They talk a big game, but when it comes down to it they're just another middle tier firm trying to pretend that it's a member of the in crowd. Then again, once they announce the pay cuts I'm sure they will also announce that they have just decided to gobble up another firm.
Cuts were upwards of 15% -- 17.2 is the highest floating around the office with the arm of doom swooping down next week. Staff has also been called to a universal meeting on Thursday. chop chop. (www.legalstaffbuzz.com)
Cuts were upwards of 15% -- 17.2 is the highest floating around the office with the arm of doom swooping down next week. Staff has also been called to a universal meeting on Thursday. chop chop. (www.legalstaffbuzz.com)
Cuts were upwards of 15% -- 17.2 is the highest floating around the office with the arm of doom swooping down next week. Staff has also been called to a universal meeting on Thursday. chop chop. (www.legalstaffbuzz.com)
40: Lat isn't gay, he just has a thpeech impediment, thatth all, thilly. Thufferin thucatathhhh.
40: Lat isn't gay, he just has a thpeech impediment, thatth all, thilly. Thufferin thucatathhhh.
This firm has severe Napoleonic complex, just like its little chairman.
Denny Crane used to work at Sutherland
46, I can remember years ago that someone else told me that a Sonnenschein senior associate bad-mouthed the firm to a law student he was interviewing and told that student to pick a better firm. That firm is pure crap right now and has been pure crap for some time.
56 is right on the money. This firm has been craptacular for some time. Look at that pathetic leverage ratio they're employing (some on this site have said it's 3 partners/associate). Yeah, a lot of high margin work is getting done in that absolute shithole. Closing offices and rescinding offers...all in a day's work over at that dirt chute.
"Hard Anal" Tvetenholdt.
Doesn't Portnoy realize that clients want to WIN their cases? The top lawyers are headed for the door -- they know they aren't going to be paid, and the dumb ones will figure it out come the first of the year. If he wanted to break from lockstep he would not have put forth a lockstep pay cut. The better law firms are all laughing because it makes them look 10 times as good not cutting salaries 30%. This is just about what Portnoy and his ilk bring in on a yearly salary. Is he really worth so much? Where is the value when they are not lowering billing rates? The bad rep. on this firm is going to make landing clients impossible -- why not go elsewhere when you are going to get top-tier representation for the same or less money? It takes an incompetent lawyer 3x as long to complete the same assignment as a competent one and the quality isn't present. Sure, there are many young lawyers out there who would take this job for 75k a year -- but they suck, and they will lose. Mid-tier firm moving to bottom-tier while Portnoy puts all the "savings" in his pocket. This game will be played for a couple of years and then Portnoy will move on to an overpaid lobbying position leaving whats left of the firm in flames.
Even though Portnoy has been Chairman for only two years, there already are a bunch of "old sayings" about Portnoy. As to Portnoy's "Associate New Paradigm Manifesto," the most apt of the "old sayings" is "The longer the memo, the bigger the lie." When Portnoy has his Thursday "discussion" with the staff, expect the memo to double in length. And just wait until the associates and the staff come to their senses, decide to unionize, and to to Hoffa, who will have little patience for Portnoy's then-hot-off-the-presses union-busting manifesto.
Even though Portnoy has been Chairman for only two years, there already are a bunch of "old sayings" about Portnoy. As to Portnoy's "Associate New Paradigm Manifesto," the most apt of the "old sayings" is "The longer the memo, the bigger the lie." When Portnoy has his Thursday "discussion" with the staff, expect the memo to double in length. And just wait until the associates and the staff come to their senses, decide to unionize, and turn to Hoffa, who will have little patience for Portnoy's then-hot-off-the-presses union-busting manifesto.
Even though Portnoy has been Chairman for only two years, there already are a bunch of "old sayings" about Portnoy. As to Portnoy's "Associate New Paradigm Manifesto," the most apt of the "old sayings" is "The longer the memo, the bigger the lie." When Portnoy has his Thursday "discussion" with the staff, expect the memo to double in length. And just wait until the associates and the staff come to their senses, decide to unionize, and turn to Hoffa, who will have little patience for Portnoy's then-hot-off-the-presses union-busting manifesto.
Even though Portnoy has been Chairman for only two years, there already are a bunch of "old sayings" about Portnoy. As to Portnoy's "Associate New Paradigm Manifesto," the most apt of the "old sayings" is "The longer the memo, the bigger the lie." When Portnoy has his Thursday "discussion" with the staff, expect the memo to double in length. And just wait until the associates and the staff come to their senses, decide to unionize, and turn to Hoffa, who will have little patience for Portnoy's then-hot-off-the-presses union-busting manifesto.
Even though Portnoy has been Chairman for only two years, there already are a bunch of "old sayings" about Portnoy. As to Portnoy's "Associate New Paradigm Manifesto," the most apt of the "old sayings" is "The longer the memo, the bigger the lie." When Portnoy has his Thursday "discussion" with the staff, expect the memo to double in length. And just wait until the associates and the staff come to their senses, decide to unionize, and turn to Hoffa, who will have little patience for Portnoy's then-hot-off-the-presses union-busting manifesto.
LOL Capital Markets (aka TPW SF) is the only profitable dept at SNR - said while cutting STAFF salaries.