Associate Salaries, Biglaw, Money

Everyone's Apparently Not A Winner At Nixon Peabody

Conflicting reports, alleged vendettas, and a firm still lingering behind the times.

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bonus money low bonuses poor empty pockets sad upset lawyer businessmanIt’s time we clear up this whole Nixon Peabody mess: at this time, we’re pretty sure they’ve not issued raises.

Last week, we received multiple tips in quick succession that Nixon Peabody had matched Cravath’s raises. None of these tips included a memo. That said, we felt the news was pretty reliable given both the sheer number of tips we got in rapid succession and the explanation one tipster provided for the missing memo:

Nixon matched Cravath finally!! The associates heard in a meeting. Memo apparently to follow sometime soon with details.

This wouldn’t have been the first firm to hand out raises via meeting without a tangible memo.

But since those tips, everything got very, very weird.

One Nixon Peabody tipster noted that night that he hadn’t heard the same news, which wasn’t entirely disqualifying since in-person announcements don’t necessarily reach everyone. We didn’t think much of it at the time… but this becomes the last news we get from inside the firm.

Then multiple tipsters from other firms started telling us that “they heard” from “people who heard” that the story wasn’t true. Usually such second-hand intel wouldn’t mean much, but it started streaming in and all our Nixon Peabody sources were clamped down like they were planning a North Korean surprise party.

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Then we got this detailed explanation — again from someone who isn’t at Nixon Peabody:

Andrew Glincher sent out an email saying that NP had not raised rates and that the ATL story was in error. He has had it in for ATL ever since the theme song/not a theme song days….

Oh yeah… the song. Look, if he’s “had it in for ATL,” he probably should direct his efforts elsewhere. Because we don’t make the news, we only pass it along. If a firm wants to write the dumbest theme song ever, that’s not our fault. And if a firm wants to be known for lingering behind the times on associate compensation, that’s not our fault either.

We’ve reached out to the firm directly and this is what they had to say:

Thanks for reaching out for comment. There have been no such changes to our associate compensation program from what was announced in March 2015.

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So, law students and potential laterals, take note that Nixon Peabody has not issued raises to match the industry standard. We’ll see what they do going forward.

Remember, when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches Cravath”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

Earlier: Everyone’s A Winner With These Salary Raises

Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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