Firms everywhere are trying to keep expenses down. For secretaries and administrative assistants at Alston & Bird, this means that overtime is going to be a lot harder to come by. Last week, A&B informed its secretaries of changes in the firm’s overtime policy:

As you know, from time to time we review our HR policies and practices to determine if they continue to meet the needs of the firm and our employees. In our continuing effort to hold the line on expenses and minimize our overtime costs, the firm has made the decision to revise our overtime policy for our professional staff, secretaries, and paralegals. After review of our current policy, we found that there were two areas that were outdated and not consistent with what the law allows and what other professional service firms are doing. As a result, we have made two changes to our policy.

Alston & Bird just happened to figure out that its overtime policy was inconsistent with the law? Well, I’m glad the firm — the law firm — is clearing that up.

We’ll take a look at the legal inconsistency after the jump.

The contest of horror between the class of 2009 and the class of 2010 rages on. Based on Friday’s no offer thread, you’d think that the class of 2010 was surging ahead. We know 3L recruiting is depressed this year, so if you got no offered from your summer firm, your chances of snagging a job upon graduation seem greatly reduced.

But there are still scads of people from the class of 2009 that are desperately hoping that they will be able to start at some point. We have been covering the new spate of deferral extensions. Usually, the extensions try to comfort incoming associates that they will have a job with their firms at some point.

But lately, firms are being more forward with the class of 2009. Last week, Baker & McKenzie warned that if it was not able to find spots for incoming associates by June 2010, “the relationship will end.”

Today, Alston & Bird incoming associates received some bad news. A tipster reports:

Alston Bird just indefinitely deferred its incoming 2009 class … They were supposed to start January 2010. There is now no start date.

Alston & Bird didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.

So, if 3L recruiting is bad this year, how is it going for 4Ls 2009 graduates who haven’t had a day of work so far? Is there anything their former law schools can do to help them out?

We’ll probably see more deferral extensions as the January 2010 start date looms large at firms that do not have enough work to go around.

Earlier: Baker & McKenzie: For Some, Deferral Extensions Could Lead to Offer Revocation

Summer associates with Alston & Bird in 2009 are starting to get a little anxious. We know that so far, none of you have received offers. But that is going to change. Alston & Bird will make offers to some people. The firm is just still trying to figure out how many offers to extend. This email was sent from Alston & Bird to its summers on Friday:

Hi everyone -

Just wanted to give you a quick update regarding the timing of offers. You may recall that we’re coordinating our decisions as a Firm this year rather than by office (though offers will be office specific). Unfortunately, not all of our offices are ready with their decisions and as a result, we won’t be able to communicate our decisions this week. We apologize for the delay, and assure you that we will be in touch as soon as possible. Please don’t hesitate to give me a call if you need anything. Many thanks.

One tipster doesn’t think Alston is wondering what its summers need:

She knows what we need…f****** job offers. Hate to say it, but this is definitely bringing the morale of the summer class down. Also seems really sketchy—there are rumors they were interviewing 3L’s. Wonder if that is what the delay is about?

Patience dear 3Ls, patience. Morale is irrelevant. Stick to your 3L interviewing schedule. Alston will get back to you when it is ready.

Earlier: Nationwide Salary Cut Watch: Alston & Bird Makes ‘Temporary’ Cuts
Prior ATL coverage of No Offers

We’re now into the back half of the brand new Vault law firm rankings. Just like last year, we worry about a proliferation of “TTT” accusations in the comment threads. But such terms of art can miss the positives of many of the firms in this section of the Vault rankings. Here’s the list:

51. Fulbright & Jaworski
52. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
53. Morgan Lewis & Bockius
54. McDermott Will & Emery
55. Alston & Bird
56. Bingham McCutchen
57. Fish & Richardson
58. Dechert
59. Greenberg Traurig
60. Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft

We have already extensively talked about the Morgan Lewis situation. Let’s move on to other firms after the jump.

You almost have to respect the extent to which some firms will torture the plain meaning of things to make bad news seem like no big deal. On that scale, Alston & Bird is one of the masters.

Alston & Bird associates were informed today that the firm is cutting salaries by $5,000 for all associates. But A&B wants you to know that it is a “temporary” salary decrease! It only applies through the end of 2009. Isn’t that nice?

Do you think salaries will automatically rebound at the start of 2010? If so, you haven’t been following along with Alston & Bird.

Let’s check out some recent history after the jump.

If you can involuntarily defer incoming associates for a full year, why can’t you do it with current associates? That way you can reduce your workforce without having to call it a “layoff,” right?

Today, Alston & Bird announced a force restructuring of 14 attorneys and 38 staff.

It’s not really a layoff (at least, not a layoff like the stealth layoffs the firm has been through over the past couple of months). But, these 52 employees are looking at something a little worse than a pay cut. The firm wide memo explains it this way:

Today, we have notified 14 associates in our transactional practice areas that the demand for legal services is not sufficient to support their full-time positions. In addition, we are reducing our support personnel by 38 staff members across several of our offices.

As we have thought about ways to offer assistance with outplacement opportunities, we have tried to remain mindful of our professional commitment to the communities where we work and live. We therefore have established a program to place our lawyers in legal positions with public interest initiatives, pro bono and nonprofit groups, and clients through the end of the year. With the help and dedicated efforts of many partners and our professional staff, these opportunities have already been identified and will include continuing benefits, reduced pay from the firm, administrative support, and the possibility that, should demand pick up by year end, we will ask them to return to Alston & Bird.

What would you call that?

Let’s parse through more of the memo after the jump.

We’ve heard rumors for a while that Alston & Bird was deferring the start dates of its incoming first year associates, but the firm refused to confirm the news. We’ve finally gotten our hands on the memo. It appears that Alston & Bird is doing exactly what you would expect:

Entering Associates: we will defer the start date for incoming associates until January 19, 2010. We will be providing a stipend of $10,000 to help defray expenses during the deferral period. In addition, we have offered the opportunity to pursue a one year public service or pro bono fellowship — and we have a number of these we can make available - to a limited group of our entering associates. For those approved for a fellowship, we will provide a payment of $5000/month.

One incoming tipster is fairly upbeat about A&B’s plan:

[S]eems about in line with most other big firms and the public service stipend is pretty good money for Atlanta if you can actually find one of those jobs these days. they must be trying to make up for the economic and stealth layoff bloodbath of late.

It appears that incoming first years have known about the plan for at least a week. So, A&B’s desire to be stealthy with its issues in this economy has not unduly harmed its incoming first years in their attempts to find alternate employment for a year. Other firms should take note that the longer they wait to defer start dates, the harder it is for their first years to secure new jobs for a year.

Alston & Bird is also scaling back its 2009 summer associate program to nine weeks.

Read the full A&B memo after the jump.

The National Law Journal reports that eight firms have opened up offices in Los Angeles during the recession. Is this really going to work? We’ve already established that the San Francisco legal market is about as relevant as an aging hippie. Are we sure that L.A. is the promised land?

According to the NLJ, firms have been capitalizing on the glut of available lawyers in California:

To do so, many firms, such as Snell & Wilmer, Atlanta’s Alston & Bird, Philadelphia’s Blank Rome and Lathrop & Gage of Kansas City, Mo., took the opportunity to snag lawyers who recently became available, largely due to dissolutions and economic conditions.

Let’s see, Blank Rome just laid off 79 people. Alston & Bird has been conducting stealth layoffs.

And just last week, Above the Law received some new information about Snell & Wilmer. Details after the jump.

We have heard a lot of chatter about layoffs at Alston & Bird over the past few months.Over the past few weeks, we’ve started to get in contact with associates that claim they have actually been laid off from the firm. We now believe that stealth layoffs are happening at Alston & Bird.

We don’t have the overall number of cuts. It seems that the firm has done a pretty good job of isolating each individual layoff. All of the sources we talked to could only speak for themselves and maybe one or two friends or acquaintances.

But each of our sources independently provides the same general story. People are being quietly “given notice” that they need to find a new job over the next three months. During this time they still have access to their offices and are still on the firm website. We understand that many practice groups have been affected, but that real estate has been hit the hardest.

First-year associates have been laid off as well. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the “performance review” angle is less true, but it’ll certainly be harder to sell.

More details emerging from Alston & Bird, after the jump.

As we noted in yesterday’s Morning Docket, even the New York Times has taken note of the salary freeze trend at law firms. The Times reached out to Above The Law’s own David Lat for the story:

Although many associates are angry about the freezes, others are relieved, said David Lat, founding editor of AboveTheLaw.com, a blog about law firms and the profession.

“There is this sense that firms didn’t act prudently during the boom and now they are getting religion, and that it’s better late than never,” Mr. Lat said. “Many associates we have spoken to think the freeze probably saved jobs.”

At the beginning of the month, we did a round-up of firms that have frozen 2009 salary rates at 2008 levels. That list was 16 firms long. Since then, quite a few other firms have announced freezes. Due to frequent requests, we’re updating the round-up list since the number of firms with freezes (that we know of) has more than doubled, to 33 32. Check out the as-comprehensive-as-we-can-make-it list, after the jump.

Recently announced salary freezes include “solid ice freezes” at Blank Rome and Townsend and Townsend and Crew; and “Slurpee freezes” at Bingham McCutchen, Fish & Richardson, and Texan firm Andrews Kurth.

Memorandums, as well as a new list of all firms with “solid ice” and “Slurpee” freezes, after the jump.

Fortune has released its annual list of the top 100 companies to work for. Despite the general feeling of malaise in the legal industry, a few law firms made the cut.

The highest ranked law firm (number 21 overall) is Arnold & Porter. Fortune reports:

Law firm offers world-class benefits to staff and attorneys: 18 weeks’ paid leave for maternity and adoption, $5,000 for adoption fees, $30,000 for fertility services, free onsite fitness center, on- and off-site child care.

I guess a salary freeze that their peer Vault 20 firms are largely avoiding doesn’t trump a free gym.

Fortune also released a list of the top 20 companies that are great places to work and still hiring. … No law firms made that list.

So I guess we’ll focus on other law firms in the top 100 after the jump.

While many firms announced their decisions to freeze 2009 salaries at the end of 2008, a few waited until now to make up their minds.

Memos went out before the first paychecks of the year to associates at Atlanta-based Alston & Bird and Washington, D.C.-based Hogan & Hartson. Alston’s is a Slurpee freeze with the firm saying it may “revisit” the decision at an unspecified time this year. Hogan’s is a Solid Ice freeze; salaries are locked at 2008 levels throughout 2009.

The language of these memos has become fairly uniform— a jumble of “economic downturn,” “challenging,” “distress,” and “2009 may really suck for us.” Okay, maybe not the last phrase, but that’s the gist. Check out the memos, after the jump.

We’ve also received word that Schulte Roth & Zabel has frozen salaries until further notice, but the language leaves hope for a decision in the near future for a raise:

The firm has not yet made any decision with respect to associate salaries for 2009. We expect a decision will be made in the next few weeks, and any change will be retroactive to January 1.

Not all firms are bracing themselves for a difficult 2009 by freezing salaries. In response to our requests for salary raise information, we heard back from associates at Cleary; Stoel Rives; Perkins Coie‏; Fried Frank; Irell; and Schiff Hardin. A host of others are named in Firms that have not frozen, a post in the ATL Community section.

Memos from Alston, Hogan, and Schulte about frozen salaries, after the jump.

LEWW had planned to bring you a dishy red-carpet post on last night’s Federalist Society bash, but it turned out that the festivities ended early and very un-festively.

We’re relieved to hear that Attorney General Mukasey appears to have made a speedy recovery and is already back at work. Given this good news, we think it’s appropriate to lighten the mood around here with some news from the weddings page.

Behold, this week’s couples:

1. Catherine Casteel and Peter Olasky

2. Rebecca Brogan and Tyler Morse

3. Emily Lawson and Tom Amis

Read our expert analysis of these couples’ pedigrees, after the jump.

Last week, older support staff at Alston & Bird received a memo encouraging them to think about the future:

We are pleased to introduce the Alston & Bird Staff Early Retirement Incentive Program. This Program is offered in response to requests from many of you and in our effort to continue to improve our staffing ratios in all offices. The Program is completely voluntary and is available to any paralegal, secretary or staff employee who has been employed by Alston & Bird for at least 10 years and is at least 55 years of age. If you qualify and are interested in participating in the Program, you must sign the Acknowledgement form at the end of this memo and return it to Michael Stephens no later than 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 26, 2008.

Employees who accept this offer may continue their employment through December 31, 2008. Employees can choose one of the following two benefit options, with payments beginning after termination of employment on December 31, 2008 (or such earlier date as may be agreed upon by the employee and the Firm).

“Completely voluntary?” How many people believe that the early retirement program is being offer because of overwhelming staff desire to “improve staffing ratios?”

For staffers with over 20 years at the firm, the early retirement plan offers 23 weeks of salary, or 16 weeks of salary plus a $450 health care subsidy.

Sound fair? Let’s fast forward to the end of the message:

Once again, please note that the deadline for electing to participate in the Program closes at 5:00 p.m. on November 26, 2008. The Firm may not offer this or any other early retirement or similar program again at a later date. If we do not receive an adequate number of responses in certain areas, the firm may need to take additional steps to adjust our staffing ratios.

An “adequate number of responses” reminds me of the scene in Gladiator when Commodus suffocates his father under the guise of a hug. How callous do you have to be to essentially threaten 55-year-old people who have worked for your company for over a decade with “additional steps to adjust our staffing ratios?” I know we’re in the midst of a serious financial crisis, but there’s a way to be a person about these things.

Predictably, older staff, younger staff, even attorneys at A&B are freaking out. A tipster reports:

Older staff is in panic. Get pressured into package now, or get laid off later with nothing. (Wonder how they’re going to fill those extra 2 floors they just leased in the NY office in this economic environment?) Nothing equivalent for lawyers yet, but A&B is very youth-worshiping, so it’s just a matter of time I expect.

We dig deeper into the “incentive program” and post it in full after the jump.

We’re entering the second half of the Vault 100. This is part of a series of open threads to discuss the firms considered to be the profession’s most prestigious. Because we know you love prestige. And the opportunity for “TTT” accusations. [FN1]

Here’s the next bunch of firms, with prestige scores in parentheses:

51. Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP (5.851)
52. Dechert LLP (5.838)
53. Vinson & Elkins LLP (5.822)
54. Goodwin Procter LLP (5.815)
55. Jenner & Block LLP (5.778)
56. Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP (5.728)
57. Alston & Bird LLP (5.715)
58. Fish & Richardson P.C. (5.706)
59. Cooley Godward LLP (5.692)
60. Irell & Manella LLP (5.635)

Vault notes that attorneys at Pillsbury are treated to “freshly baked cookies.” But they also have to put up with being referred to as “Pillsburians” by Vault.

Compare, contrast, discuss… and if you’re at Pillsbury, have a chocolate chip cookie for us.

Earlier: Vault 100 Open Threads - 2009

[FN1] We periodically get e-mails asking for the definition of “TTT,” which appears so often in comment threads. As the uninitiated have surely gathered, it’s a derogatory term. Likely originating on AutoAdmit, it stands for “third tier toilet.” For more, see Urban Dictionary.

Just to close the loop on this prior report, the talks between Alston & Bird and Los Angeles-based Weston Benshoof have borne fruit. Alston’s acquisition of Weston is official. From a firm-wide email just issued by A&B managing partner Richard Hays:

This morning, the partners voted overwhelmingly to expand the firm into California with the opening of two new offices. The Los Angeles-based Weston Benshoof firm and their 83 attorneys will become a part of Alston & Bird and, additionally, we will be opening an office in Silicon Valley with a group of eleven (11) intellectual property lawyers formerly with Akin Gump.

The complete memo appears after the jump. The official press release from Alston & Bird appears here (PDF).

Elsewhere on the A&B front, we’ve been hearing all sorts of rumors about goings-on over there — some of them in comments, and some by email. There may be nothing to them; but if there’s anything to report, you know where to reach us. Thanks.

In the comments to our recent post about the large summer associate class in the Chicago office of Skadden, one commenter accused us of “ignoring the massive overhiring of summers at dozens of firms.” We plead not guilty, noting that the comment was itself appended to a post about alleged overhiring at Skadden.

But, inspired (or perhaps goaded) by this comment, we’ve decided to create an open thread on the subject of overly large summer associate classes. Firms with XXL summer classes are the ones where summers are most anxious about not getting a full-time job offer at the end of the program. And it’s probably true that, all things being equal, you’re more likely to get no-offered at a law firm whose 2008 summer associate class is dramatically larger than its 2007 summer associate class. (Note the qualifier “all things being equal” — it could be that the firm or office, like Skadden in Chicago, is busy and making a deliberate effort to grow.)

In the comments to the Skadden - Chicago post, a few firms were fingered as having super-big summer associate classes this year. We followed up on some of them, using the NALP Directory.

Many of the firms mentioned by commenters do have 2008 summer classes that are substantially larger than their 2007 summer classes. One reader pointed to Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Shearman & Sterling; and White & Case. According to the NALP Directory:

Cravath: Summer 2Ls considered for associate offers in 2007 who received offers: 91 out of 91. Summer 2Ls in 2008 = 161. Increase in summer class size: 77 percent.

Shearman: Summer 2Ls considered for associate offers in 2007 who received offers = 75 out of 75. Summer 2Ls in 2008 = 134. Increase in summer class size: 79 percent.

White & Case: Summer 2Ls considered for associate offers in 2007 who received offers = 40 out of 40. Summer 2Ls in 2008 = 114. Increase in summer class size: 185 percent.

One commenter claimed that Alston & Bird in Atlanta had “way overhired.” But in 2007, they had 50 summer 2Ls who were considered for associate offers (and made offers to 48 of them). In 2008, they have 51 summer 2Ls — not exactly a massive increase.

Has your firm overhired for its summer program? Are you worried about not getting an offer at the end of the summer — which is just around the corner? Feel free to share, in the comments

Update: One of you notes, and properly so, that “a firm can overhire for a summer even if it hires less summers than the year before — for example, if the economy has tanked and every other law firm in the city is cutting their summer classes by 30% or more. So, yes, A&B overhired.”

We don’t know exactly how things are going at A&B in Atlanta these days. But we’ve heard some interesting things. If you think you know what we’re talking about, please drop us a line.

Earlier: Skadden in Chicago: Too Popular For Its Own Good?

There have been lots of law firm “mini-mergers” in the past month or so. In addition to the two mentioned here — Husch Blackwell Sanders + Welsh & Katz, and Troutman Sanders + Ross, Dixon & Bell — most of Schwartz Cooper of Chicago recently got swallowed up by Dykema, and Ballard Spahr acquired IP boutique Needle & Rosenberg, of Atlanta.

Today brings the possibility of another non-mega merger — or acquisition, to put it more accurately. From Am Law Daily:

Atlanta law firm Alston & Bird is in talks to acquire Los Angeles-based firm Weston Benshoof.

If a deal between the firms is finalized, the combination would give 800-attorney Alston, which has six domestic offices, an outpost in California. The move follows the West Coast expansion of another Atlanta firm, King & Spalding, which opened offices in Silicon Valley and San Francisco earlier this year. Presently 20 attorneys work at King’s two California offices.

Alston’s potential merger with Weston would instantly give it 80 California attorneys specializing in litigation, real estate development, and environmental law.

Some ATL readers think the California legal market is best avoided these days. But Alston & Bird apparently disagrees.

Lately we’ve been hearing lots of law firm merger rumors — and some of them involve firms you’ve actually heard of. If you have a merger rumor you’d like to pass along for investigation, please email us. Thanks.

Alston in Merger Talks with Weston Benshoof [Am Law Daily]
LaSalle’s law firm disappears [Chicago Tribune]
Ballard Spahr Acquires Atlanta IP Boutique [American Lawyer]

Earlier: Law Firm Merger Mania: Two More Medium-Sized Mergers

Their personal identity information gets compromised by data breaches. From the Washington Post:

Sometime late last year, an employee of a McLean investment firm decided to trade some music, or maybe a movie, with like-minded users of the online file-sharing network LimeWire while using a company computer. In doing so, he inadvertently opened the private files of his firm, Wagner Resource Group, to the public.

That exposed the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of about 2,000 of the firm’s clients, including a number of high-powered lawyers and Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer….

A spokesman for Breyer said the justice had no comment on the security breach, which came to light after the reader notified Security Fix and the blog alerted some of the Wagner clients.

Eh, but who cares about lowly — or low-paid — Supreme Court justices? Lordly law firm partners were also victimized: “‘This may explain why two weeks ago I got a $9,000 cellphone bill from AT&T,’ said Steven Agresta, a partner with the law firm Alston & Bird.”

Or maybe a certain A&B summer associate got a hold of Agresta’s cell phone, and decided to call his homies back in Croatia. Did Agresta also get charged for a small fortune in necktie purchases?

Update: Some of you have asked for an update about Divljan Shatterhand Steele. He’s still a summer associate at Alston & Bird, where he is doing well and has become something of a minor celebrity.

Justice Breyer Is Among Victims in Data Breach Caused by File Sharing [Washington Post via Drudge]

We heard through the grapevine that Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the D.C. Circuit gave ATL a shout out during a Federalist Society lunch earlier this month. According to our tipsters, “his biggest advice to any summer associates in the audience was ‘don’t show up on David Lat’s blog, Above the Law.’”

Well, the first summer associate tale of 2008 has made its way into our tips inbox from Atlanta. A summer associate at Alston & Bird decided to share his quirky sense of humor and alter ego with the rest of his summer class. Our tipster explains:

[This e-mail] was sent by an Alston & Bird summer… (as his cross-dressing alter-ego Divljan Shatterhand Steele) to the entire Atlanta summer class. The email, besides being super weird, is pretty innocuous. However, the pictures on his Facebook account could give him some serious trouble — besides the multiple pictures of him dressed in drag as his alter-ego, there is a picture of a pie with a gummy-bear swastika…

Needless to say, the email has already been widely circulated. A&B has a progressive reputation, but this might be a bit much. Given the current state of the market, Alston might be regretting hiring such a huge summer class (look at the recipient list, which likely only includes the summers who are working the first half) in Atlanta. This guy isn’t doing himself any favors.

The bizarre e-mail, involving tarot cards and multiple personalities, is available after the jump. If you’ve been wondering about the history of neckties, you’ll definitely want to check it out.

We have redacted the SA’s name and ask that you not identify the person in the comments. Feel free to refer to him as “Divljan” only. Thanks.