This must be about the 4th article in as many days about the paycut-Please no more articles about this dogshit firm until they dissolve

no sooner had i finished reading the galleys of north dallas forty than my agent called me with an offer to play the lead. hadnt touched a football in 15 years, but i think i did ok, dont you? partied way too hard w/ mac davis and chuck durning. rare to get a good paycheck AND a good role.

yours,
nick nolte

i also should mention that dabney c. also could party with best of them!

yours,
nick nolte

Latham would never do this

Haters step off. TS is the best firm in Atlanta, the Southeast, soon-to-be New York, and is then headed for world domination. (brushing shoulders off).

-Troutman 2nd year

Who cares you douche? At this point we have to put up with you posting articles correcting other articles that should never have appeared here in the first place. Congratulations you waste of space known as Elie Mystal. I am ashamed and angry that you are taking up oxygen on this planet.

"Covey leader to Raven. Come in Raven."

I am a 5th year TS associate, got a 60% paycut here, and I still love this place. Would work here for 20K. Mmmm mmmm, love me some Trout'!

Thorn: It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!

Hatcher: I promise, Tiger. I promise. I'll tell the exchange.

Thorn: You tell everybody. Listen to me, Hatcher. You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is people! We've gotta stop them somehow!

Sounds like ther may be an direct relationship to one's willingness to tip off ATL and the amount of pay that person lost due to crappy performance.

Haters step on. TS is the worst firm in Atlanta, the Southeast, soon-to-be New York, and is then headed for self destruction. (brushing debris off).

-Troutman 2nd year w/ massive salary-cut

MAN, I caught a TROUT in the SAND.

That assumes the people with the drastically cut paychecks (low billers and low performers) can actually read the writing on the wall. Stay tuned next week for firings at Troutman Sanders.

This is probably the best/most fair move Partners could employ in a tumbling economy besides lowering their own PPP.

I am a partner at an employment litigation boutique and would like to speak with some of the affected individuals. This the clearest case I have ever seen of such a blatant violation of the restatement second of contracts, section 90.

I just saw PE get declined for a cash advance on his Discover Card. He is trying to bigshot it at Rick's and the dancers are laughing at him.

Troutman Sanders is TTT.

Bottom line -- it's a pay cut.

What about the original Troutman Sanders announcement was open to interpretation? Seems pretty clear to me they did not mean the 10% would be retroactive.

Fuck this FINGER LICKING FIRM.

does ATL have anything to report other than layoffs, paycuts, and OCI cancellations?

there are no interesting cases, scandals, stories anywhere

does ATL have anything to report other than layoffs, paycuts, and OCI cancellations?

there are no interesting cases, scandals, stories anywhere

Nick Nolte,

A picture is essential to your survival.

-Sent from Partner Emiritus' Sprint Touch Pro 2

Ellie, you spend a lot of time correcting your prior posts. You should think on that some.

I'm pathetic mommy.

-Accidentally Sent FROM Parter Emeritus' Sprint Touch Pro 2.

"Defuse the situation, defuse him. Let him get away. You'll soon find him in Seattle, working in a car wash. That way no-one gets hurt."

Troutman Sanders is the lesser known brother of colonel sanders and the founder of kentucky fried fish. For some reason no kff offices or stores are located in Kentucky. I hear they came out with a new grilled trout special.

This article is dead wrong. The paycuts are retroactive. If someone was making $160,000 and was told their pay is being cut 10% such that they are now making $144,000, the firm is taking that $16,000 out over the next five months such that that person will have made $144,000 for that fiscal year. They are not simply deducting 10% from each paycheck going forward. This is just an effort by the firm to try to spin a complete management failure.

"Troop leader to Raven, talk to me, Johnny.
Troop leader calling the Baker Team: Rambo, Messner, Ortega, Coletta, Jorgensen, Danforth, Berry, Krakauer.
Confirm.
Colonel Trautman speaking.
Talk to me, Johnny."

28 is correct. Troutman is lying to you, Elie.

"It appears that some of our tipsters thought that the pay cut was being retroactively applied to the full 2009 salary because some of them lost much more than 10% of their pay. Based on individual performance evaluations, some associates took a big pay cut, other associates got to keep their salary."

Good. Let the transactional lawyers whose non-existent practices are sinking the firm bear the brunt of this.

28/30

"But you're a civilian. You're going back to your wife and your house. You don't have to make sense out of all this."

28 and 30 - I think you're wrong. Just because they took out 10% of someone's salary for the year doesn't mean they lied when they said they were taking out 10% of the "associate salary budged for Aug-Dec of 2009." Some people probably got more than a 10% "annual cut" - some got a lot less. In any event, its not retroactive just because they took a ton from some people and a lot less from others.

On that note, I know people working there, and they're all expecting for a new round of firings in October. Troutman does performance review in October, and you can be sure they'll use that as an excuse to fire people. They're pretty much the least trustworthy firm in Atlanta from an associate's perspective. Must explain why they're imploding with partners leaving every week and taking big books of business with them.

A good lawyer concisely and clearly his opinions expresses.

"According to Troutman's managing partner, Bob Webb, the firm didn't think it was fair to top performers and top billers to give them a substantial pay cut. "

I wonder if the Partners, who are supposed to provide the hours for the low billers, are also taking a corresponding cut on their pay.

33 -- Telling people that their salary is being cut by some certain percentage implies that it will be cut by that exact percentage on a going-forward basis. Not that the person will effectively have made only that percentage-reduced salary by the end of the year for the entire year. Of course some salaries were cut more and other's less. The difference lies in the way they "collect" this reduction. If they're just cutting their pay going forward such that each paycheck is reduced by that percentage amount, that's one thing. It's entirely another to cut someone's paycheck by that percentage amount such that they only collected that "revised" salary by the end of the year. It is retroactive when they make sure that someone who was making $160,000 up until the paycuts is only going to take home $144,000 by December 31 (assuming a 10% paycut). That is what they're doing regardless of how they try to dress it up. A pig is still a pig.

36 -- A salary cut is better than a layoff. What do these people really have to complain about? They could be out on the street, with a lot of other lawyers.

37 -- Of course it could be worse and these associates could be laid-off. That isn't the point. The point is that Troutman is trying to spin this as a standard 10% pay reduction and that's not what it is. It's much worse than that and is a reflection of their poor management. People should know that. They are not "in line" with other 10% pay reductions at other firms.

A commenter wrote that a lot of Troutman partners have been leaving. Why is that?

37 - Yes, and those lawyers "out on the street" could have been born into orphanages in third world countries, so they have nothing to complain about either. Brilliant, no complaining if you are better off than somebody else.

Asstrout?

Which partners have left? I hardly see any news of it in the AmLaw lateral section.

38 - It's not necessarily "much worse" than a 10% cut. For some people, it was much better-because they received no cut or a small one. Underperformers/people with less experience were hit the most. It makes sense. Finally law firms are starting to think more like real businesses.

Partners have left (not been laid off) from Employment, Litigation, Public Finance and Corporate. The corporate guys in particular took a big chunk of Southern Company business-one of Troutman's major clients.

Only $135,000 instead of $150,000. I have a family to feed!

---Latrell Sprewell

43 -- Why are partners leaving? Is it just in Atlanta?

28 and 30 - hey dumbasses, your salary was cut more than 10%, that's the point. It's not retroactive, but it's more than 10%. They never said that you would get a 10% cut - they said the money allocated to associate salaries for the rest of the year would be cut 10% -- some associates would be cut less, some would be cut more.

The fact you can't understand this probably explains why your salary was cut more than 10% -- you obviously aren't given much billable work to do because you're an idiot.

To settle this dispute, what will happen in January 2010? Will the same amount be deducted? If so, then it is NOT retroactive NOR only 10%. However, if the reduction decreases to account for a full year, then the paycut WAS retroactive and IS only 10%. So, wait til January and see -- if you have a job still!

At least Troutman has some shame, even if they lost their honor.

We here at Atlanta's WorsTTT Law Firm© McKenna Long & Aldridge remain unbowed, brazen and knee deep in our own filth without you Troutman.

Who is next?

When are Atlanta summer associates going to hear about offers?

49- Lol, like summers are getting offers in Atlanta. No, j/k. Last year we heard by the end of August, FWIW. If firms are following NALP, I suspect they'll let you know by mid-September or so.

Stop writing 'off of' you mongoloid! Double prepositions are moronic.

ASSTROUT! Definitely!

Who's got an asstrout?

Asstrout?

to 8: nice rambo first blood quote

28, 30 and 36 are correct. The info from Troutman is completely untrue.

In my meeting, they told me specifically that the amount cut was off my entire 2009 salary and would be taken out over the remaining 10 paychecks in 2009 (aug-Dec). They even said that it would feel like I get a raise in January because my new salary would be spread across the entire year's (2010) paychecks instead of just the last five months for 2009.

Regarding the 10% amount--this has been very confusing. They told us individually, that the average annual pay cut was 4.16%. Some annual salaries were cut more and some less based on performance and billables, and they told me where I fell on that scale. Interestingly--that average percentage is 5/12. There are 5 months remaining in 2009 paychecks (out of the 12). That's how they're shaving off 10% of Troutman's associate budget for the remainder of 2009. And that's how they can spin it that it is not a retroactive cut. Well it may not be for Troutman's line item on their budget, but it certainly is applied retroactively to individual associate salaries.

I agree with 36--the management can spin it all they like, but this is a retroactive pay cut.

It only isn't retroactive in the sense that if you walked out the door today, they can't take it back. Since no one in their right mind is doing that in this market, it effectively is retroactive.

Also, if anyone thinks that the per-paycheck amount will go up in January when the % would be spread out over 12 months instead of 5, they are high.

If anyone in Atlanta legal market views the senior partnership at Troutman as anything other than a bunch of pimps, they should have their head examined.

It is definitely retroactive. No way around it.

It is retroactive. Why they come out and say that it's not -- now that's beyond me.