Associate Salaries, Salary Freeze

At Winston: Double Salary Freeze is On, But Rates Set to Rise

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Another salary shoe has fallen in Chicago. Winston & Strawn froze salaries last year, and they are doing it again this year. A tipster reports:

Chicago received salary memos yesterday; DC just received salary memos today – All are individualized with no general pay scale included – just the recipient’s salary information.
Based on conversations with numerous associates in both offices – those who did not make hours (1950), those who did, and those who exceeded, all salaries remained the same (frozen at 2008 rates).

Well, at least that’s consistent.
A few details from the memos after the jump.


All the Winston salary memos were individualized. But there was some common language in all the memos:

Base Compensation
The firm is continuing to evaluate economic and market conditions. We will communicate additional information regarding Calendar 2010 associate compensation at a later date.
Based on the above, your base compensation remains as follows:
Current Base Compensation: [Redacted]

That redacted number represents a salary freeze, according to our sources.
What is Winston waiting to evaluate? Arguably they’ve already seen their own internal revenue numbers, and the surely know that the “market conditions” suggest that most of their competitors are thawing out associate salaries.
Winston & Strawn did not respond to our request for comment.
But tipsters report that Winston isn’t waiting to raise billing rates:

[I]t is worth noting that billable rates significantly increased this year for all associates. For instance, 3rd year associates – who continue to earn $160,000 – have seen a $30/hour increase in billable rates since their first year. 4th year associates – who continue to earn $170,000 – have seen a $50/hour increase in billable rates since their second year. 5th year associates – who continue to earn $185,000 – have seen a $95/hour increase in billable rates.

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Pay employees less, charge clients more. Is that a profit plan that will work?
Earlier: Mayer Brown: True-Up Raises in Washington. Somebody Get Sidley on the Phone.

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