Nationwide Salary Cut Watch: Buchanan Ingersoll
Another day, and another firm is retreating from the salaries of the past. Our sources report that Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney has decided to cut associate salaries between 5% and 10%.
The cuts will affect all class years.
Buchanan Ingersoll CEO Jack Barbour furnished Above the Law with this statement. Barbour suggests that the cuts are in part to due to Buchanan’s attempts to keep its billing rates competitive in this recession economy:
The firm generally has reduced associate compensation at a rate of between 5 and 10% per year. Certain associates may receive a higher or lesser reduction based on individual circumstances. This decision was not an easy one, but we feel that it is in the best interest of the firm and our clients to maintain the quality of service our clients have come to expect while keeping our rates at competitive levels.
The firm did not elaborate on what those individual circumstances might be.
Our sources believe the cuts will be based on hours, but you never know. Wouldn’t it be funny if the firm did it alphabetically. Nobody would be expecting that! It’s good to keep people on their toes.
It’s a little surprising that the firm cut salaries while summers are in the office, simply because the summers are only around for a short period of time. Buchanan scaled back this year’s summer program to seven weeks.
But if cutting salaries now saves jobs later, associates and summers might be all for it.
Earlier: Summer Cuts at Buchanan Ingersoll
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Comments
firstttttttttttttt
Fifthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Pershiy!
It's a little surprising that the firm cut salaries while summers we in the office, simply because the summers are only around for a short period of time.
If Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney is hurting, the world must be coming to an end.
Skadden has cut summers to two and a half weeks. But they are raising starting salaries as per NALP.
Fuck you moderator!
Comment eaten (what else!) by moderator.
[Pat] Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney
2 - ne pershiy a druhiy
QUINN REMAINS
I'm also curious as to what the deal is with Skadden and the TBD on their NALP entry.
Oh and sucks about the trend to lower pay.
Instead of "summers we in the office," did you mean "summers ARE in the office" or "summers BE in the office?"
13 = racist.
to 10 - pravda
14=Al Sharpton, aka racebaiter
BI should have canned half of the Klett Rooney guys when they merged. Only a matter of time before the axe starts swinging over there.
Fuck you moderator!
Surely Elie,
One of these crack interns could be making the Sanford emails available and RELEVANT to Big Law. Isnt he represented by Cravath or something?
"Two, mutual feelings .... You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night's light - but hey, that would be going into sexual details ..."
I've been wondering: Is the ship still floating, or is its current condition something short of total seaworthiness? If the latter, please describe that condition, preferably in nonstandard English.
Thanks in advance.
the ship be sinking
The dick be stinkin...
20, the coast guard has been alerted. Michael Ray Richardson is coordinating the rescue efforts.
19, that is beautiful. Reminds me of Lord Byron.
20-22: hilarious
If my pay was getting cut and the summer associates weren't, I'd make them pay for my lunch.
Someone explain this to me. Do salary reductions correlate only to firms reducing billing rates to clients or are some firms keeping billing rates the same and keeping more money in the coffers for things such as partner profits?
I'm a stud associate, so I insist on getting the HIGHEST reduction!
Oh, wait....
Is the Tampa office still headed up by a known and habitual sexual harasser? Pittsburgh was put on notice years ago.
22 - the pussy be fartin'
5 and 10% per year?
so eventually be paid nothing? Or maybe that should be "class year"
28--huh?
This firm is a joke. They took literally the dumbest and biggest bitch from my graduating class in 08. She was the smartest person she knew.
No. No Elie, that wouldn't be funny.
They are also canning associates right now - at least 2 confirmed
The news has really slowed down. Shouldn't there be some good summer associate scandals to report? Or is everybody behaving themselves in the hopes of getting an offer?
Each betrayal begins with trust
Do these salary cuts qualify as genocide? Should we notify the ICC or some other international tribunal?
They not only cut already below market associate salaries the firm put the associates on a monthly pay cycle. The greedy partners still get bi-weekly checks.
No rate cuts. In fact, rates were raised this year. Including the rates of first year associates.
Klett lawyers will sink Buchanan
prepare the obit
Is Dildeena Thompson a partner at this firm?
Can we get a roundup of associate salaries? Interesting to compare pay now that some firms have cut and some have frozen pay (effective cuts for anyone over first year).
can the new CEO sink two firms
What was Buchanan paying before the cuts - they were lockstep, right? If cuts will be different for each associate does that also mean a break from lock step for them?
ATL helped drive up associate salaries and perks in the good times and now appears to be doing the opposite. The question is why. This is supposed to be a site that advocates for associates (or least was before Elie took over).
BI has been doing stealth layoffs for almost a year. They are supposedly laying-off 10-15 more associates soon. I'm really suprised they've been able to keep it hushed up so well.
#26 - as in-house counsel, I have found that billing rates are NOT going down. I personally think partners would rather lay off associates and cut their salaries while still keeping billing rates the same (or raise them) just to make sure they can still live the luxurious life at the expense of everyone else.
#26 - as in-house counsel, I have found that billing rates are NOT going down. I personally think partners would rather lay off associates and cut their salaries while still keeping billing rates the same (or raise them) just to make sure they can still live the luxurious life at the expense of everyone else.
wow i am surprised people care about this firm
wow i am surprised people care about this firm
I just feel bad for the New York office. Apparently it's being run by an incompetent partner and his dad, who seem to care only about lining their own pockets (at the expense of their associates and clients).
things getting worse. Firm forced to reduce monthy partner compensation. Sound like Wolf Block II
This is the problem with law firms. They are run by lawyers instead of people with business proficiency.
Crap firm. What more can be said? Any firm that has to cut pay is a firm that is hurting financially. I don't particularly care how the firms try to spin this kind of crap. They know full well that they are now no longer competing for the best talent. And, now they'll get to enjoy commodity work exclusively. Good move, guys.
While Barbour said it is never pleasant to cut people's compensation, he added, "I don't worry about the decisions we make nearly as much as I worry about what I should be doing that I'm not thinking about doing."
That tells it all