O’Melveny Freezes Staff Salaries to July 2010
At what point does a salary freeze start to feel like a salary cut? Staff at O’Melveny & Myers are about to find out. O’Melveny just announced a new salary ice-age for its staff. Above the Law obtained this internal memo sent to O’Melveny staffers:
We are committed to taking proactive steps to maintain our financial strength in the face of unprecedented economic times. As part of this effort, we continue to look at how we can prudently and efficiently manage our costs and have therefore decided that there will be no salary increases this year and the performance evaluation cycle will be extended from 12 months to 24 months. Your performance evaluation will now cover the period between July 2008 - July 2010. We will consider salary increases at the end of the new performance review period in July 2010.
O’Melveny has already been through layoffs. In March, 200 people were let go, including 110 staffers. So on the one hand, a salary cut is a lot better than being out on the street.
On the other hand, staffers don’t make much to begin with, and nobody wants a static salary. O’Melveny staff better start rooting for the rest of the American economy to continue its deflationary trend.
O’Melveny confirmed that the freeze only applies to staff.
Will we see more ice-age freezes this summer? Stay tuned.
Check out the full firm statement after the jump.
Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: O’Melveny Fires 90 Lawyers, 110 Staff
O’MELVENY & MYERS — MEMORANDUM — SALARY FREEZE
We can all agree that it has been a challenging year for businesses around the globe. Over the past several months, Firm leadership has been discussing the impact that the challenging economy has had on our Firm and on law firms in general. We are committed to taking proactive steps to maintain our financial strength in the face of
unprecedented economic times. As part of this effort, we continue to look at how we can prudently and efficiently manage our costs and have therefore decided that there will be no salary increases this year and the performance evaluation cycle will be extended from 12 months to 24 months. Your performance evaluation will now cover the period between July 2008 - July 2010. We will consider salary increases at the end of the new performance review period in July 2010.
We continue to evaluate other compensation programs as well, such as annual bonuses, as part of our commitment to remain strong in these rapidly changing times. We recognize that this comes as unwelcome news, but these steps are necessitated by the broader economic circumstances that we now confront.
While we have extended the current performance review cycle this year, the Firm remains committed to the professional development of its employees. We encourage you to find opportunities to have meaningful conversations with your supervisor or local HR Managers with regard to your personal and professional growth here at O’Melveny. Please continue to provide feedback and suggestions on how to work more efficiently and effectively with the shared goal of providing excellent service to our clients.
We thank you all once again for your commitment and your continued support and understanding as we continue to navigate through these challenging economic times. Please feel free to contact your HR Manager or Office Administrator should you have any questions.
(68) 
Comments
I'm Barack Obama?
first
staff are obsolete technology. get those worthless fats out of here. keep the cute girls.
Sorry about your little white layoff notice, bro. Notice what it said about inefficiencies?
Hint: polishing your nails and playing Internet scrabble is not being efficient.
hooray for cute girls!
"So on the one hand, a salary cut is a lot better on being out on the street. "
Really? The typos have gotten to be so bad that even I'm commenting on them now.
I WILL ...oh, forget it.
hooray for cute girls!
No raises? Tough shit!
4 --
I'm BUFFING my nails, and it's internet Risk, tyvm.
If O'Melveny staff and attorneys are unhappy with their salaries and employment there are plenty of educated persons in India, China, Europe, and elsewhere that stand read to take their places. To some extent, this is already happening in major markets such as L.A., Chicago, New York, and D.C., where a significant and growing percentage of staff and attorneys are foreign-born. However, we need to further loosen immigration restrictions to allow a greater flow of foreign talent to enter the legal market.
This would improve firms' efficiency and make legal services more affordable.
Like freezing our wages will make such a BFD. Lawyers are the servants of Satan.
yes, hooray for cute girls
~3
Expanding the H1B work visa quota and other means of immigration is the answer.
The ship be sinking...
So no shared burden with the attorneys? I call shenanigans!!!!
If I were staff there I would do whatever I could do to screw with the system - lost file here - deleted file there, a coke in the copier (accidental of course).
OMM is not looking to save your job at this point they are trying to insure Partner and Ass.ociate bonuses.
According to a leaker in the LA office, Paul Hastings is dangerously close to a covenant default on their line of credit. According to this person, any default will cause the creditor to ask for personal guarantees from the partnership. This can only result in a second "reduction in force" once the SAs leave.
The ship be sinking...
Latham, back to a solid #2 in the LA legal market! :)
17 - PH is toast!
To No. 3; If staff is obsolete, then I propose that the lawyers can do their own e-filings and services, legal research, timesheet entering, phone answering, bill preparing and record keeping. Uh, yeah.
17: LOL! Pony up Seth and Greg!
@20 - I am a lawyer and I do all that stuff. I've found that it takes the same amount of (or sometimes even less) time to do various admin tasks myself than to try and explain them to my assistant, plus even if I do have her do it, I still have to check it afterward. Just easier to do it once, do it right, do it myself.
@ 22--that's great that you do that stuff by yourself. You must not be that busy. I work for 4 busy litigators and trust that they don't do any of that stuff except for answer their own phones b/c I am usually too busy to grab all of their lines. I have multiple e-filings daily not to mention letters and research and other stuff including timesheets and general admin tasks. I think alot is expected of us here at this firm. I do not sit around painting my nails that's for sure!
20, seriously, entering time? Heard of Carpe Diem? We frequently have to do all of those things you list ourselves, and almost always between the hours of 5pm and 9am. Especially now that staff are being mown down in layoffs. Yeah, it costs the client more to undercut support for basic tasks, but that's not really my call. It gets done.
In any event, when it's really important you have to do it yourself or supervise it closely. Because no matter how indispensible you think you are, "my secretary used the wrong billing code/paralegal used wrong service list/recods lost the box/closing certificate not burned to disk by IT" is always, always the non-credited response when something goes wrong. And yes, I get it right more than you when it really matters.
Surf and Turf = Kashasslobster and Mystal's moobs
@22 The reason you have admin staff to do admin stuff is so you won't have to bill the client for those things. Unless you're billing your time to do the "admin stuff". I'm sure you can do it all by yourself but this is not the time to try and show off.
Guys at my high school used to enter their own time. It was no big deal.
So a 2-year review cycle. Sucks to be anyone who was up for counsel next year.
OMM->TTT
@ 24--why so nasty? I don't think I am indispensible! I am just utilized by my attorneys. My attorneys are busy billing hours and doing real legal work. I don't care if I get laid off, I will find something else, I have my degree and loads of experience. I'm not worried about it. The truth is I love my job and I like the people I work for. Yes some of the attorneys are cheap and spoiled but hey that's the way it is. Oh, and as for Carpe Diem, what a joke! I'd like to see one attorney here actually use that program. Obviously you don't know some of the partners around here.
18 --- GDC is #1? I can't see what other firm would be.
18 --- GDC is #1? I can't see what other firm would be.
Secretaries doing legal research? please! Tell me which firm you work at in which state so that I can report the malpractice.
Munger.
17:
PH's Bdev should go first!! They are nothing but usless imbeciles with their heads up their arses..Brand this..my ass..
GDC
LW
OMM
just shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic
33: Munger is not #1 ... prestigious, but regional ....
35: GDC seems in decent shape ,,, seems clearly above the other two
Is LW really still above OMM after firing over 200 attorneys and deferring a ton of incoming associates?
34 - Especially that useless Meg Sullivan, PH's Minister of Propaganda. The NY office has 19 of these morons! But they would rather cut good associates, and tar their reputations to boot!
36: proportionally, the layoffs were probably about the same
but who cares? they all suck in LA
there's no way GDC is not engaging in stealth layoffs
37
Meg invented the "PH 50." POOF!!! The PH 50 is gone!
17: I hope they lose their vacation homes. Greedy cocksuckers.
37 and 39
PH50 is now PH"Zero".. ..and what about "China Matters?" I guess now it doesn't matter..Greg and Seth needs to cut the fat in the Bdev department..completely useless..
41 - The China offices are busy contracting. But it really doesn't matter.
Give me a break about secretaries and paralegals doing legal research. Even first and second years do a crap job of this, and they went to law school.
41: Greg and Seth are also completely useless.
Looking up the phone number to the County Clerk is technically legal research.
University of Phoenix Online Valedictorian
17- What is the problem with PH's credit line?
46 - According to my source in LA (who I trust), the partners borrowed against receivables 1 yr during the boom times and immediately distributed the cash. If PH's cash flow does not significantly pick up for the next two quarters, they will most likely be in default.
47- Sounds a lot like what happened to Heller.
Paul Hastings list of strategies to being #1:
1. PH50 program = tanked
2. New red ugly brand = sucks
3. Hire more PR people = useless
4. 15-10 = joke
5. Move SD office = bad investment
New Strategy:
1. Fire those who thought of the above
49: They should fire Greg and Seth, along with that cocksucker chair in the NY office.
51- While they're at it, they should cut that jackass of a bankruptcy partner in NY. For 5 mil a year, you would think he could land a case!
51
I worked for said jackass when he was at Milbank. He has absolutely no personality and was known as the "scourge of the associates." "Jackass" is quite an understatement. I cannot believe PH is paying him $5 mil a year!
Oh wow, some of you private sector guys must be fired up? Btw, I am playing with this chess set I am whittling from rosewood and maple. I am working on my black king, as we speak. I'm going to go into work tomorrow around 10. I have a guilty plea to put through at 9, but the District Judge hearing the case won't start till around 10. I'll probably grab lunch around 11:30, then, and head on home around 4, so I can get back to work on my chess set.
It is only a subpar associate who would argue that he can deliver a superior work product of admin. tasks over a secretary.
Oh, and if you would like to take on secretarial tasks to increase your billable hours, there are attys. in India who will work both sides of the markup for a lot less.
50- You forgot to add "lying" before "cocksucker."
What happened at Clifford Chance?!
51: You forgot to add "misogynist" before "jackass."
32.
1. Mantham
2. India
I'm so tired of listening to "I'm useful because I can do administrative tasks so I deserve my 60-80k salary" secretaries.
All I see them do is chat noisily on the phone or chat with other staff. Completely useless.
In this economy, law firms will do well to cut 30% of attorneys and 80% of staff.
And 16, you're either a troll or a secretary who actually believes that staff should have equal standing at a law firm. In life in general, yes, we all have equal standing. In a law firm, staff are below the lawyers.
Or if you want to rebel against lawyers, why don't you go set up shop with the other staff? (try to figure out why that won't work)
23 - you are special and you are important, because you work really hard for someone else.
If you work even harder, the people above you will make even more money, and you will be more special.
20-- we already do!
What exactly is/was PH50?
62
PH50 = Paul Hastings' 50 institutional clients. Such as Lehman and Bear Stearns.
Gotcha. Thanks.
-62
who cares about staff -- when are they firing more associates? i heard late june. anyone out there who can confirm?
65 - really? Where are you from and how did you hear this?
Wow, quite a lot of bullies on this playground, picking on the secretaries. I think it's pretty safe to assume you're all associates who have a lot to learn about responsibility and respect. Perhaps when you mature professionally, instead of spending your spare time performing administrative tasks that could and should be delegated to support staff, you'll find that your time will be spent more wisely on client development activities and new business generation pursuits. Successful partners have long found that competent assistants are not only valuable, but essential to their practice.
Hey 24, so do you also do all of your IT stuff, you know, Blackberry, computers, etc.? Do you also do your own text-editing and large data copying? So are you really saying that you can do without any support...