As promised, we're back with our second installment of LEWW this week. We think you'll agree that this one features some of our finest contestants of the season. A SCOTUS clerkship (finally!), a Rhodes, more YLS grads -- enjoy this special Independence Day edition of the Legal Eagle Wedding Watch!

Here are the names:

1. Stephanie Denton and Zeno Baucus

2. Mary Fan and Dean Kawamoto

3. Emma Terrell and Trevor Leitch

4. Courtenay Van Sciver and Peter Washkowitz

5. Maria Glover and Derek Ho

Click on the "continue reading" link below to see these couples' photos and sparkly credentials.

Quite possibly. From the American Lawyer (via NYLawyer.com (subscription)):

[David] Boies, the founder of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, loves the thrill of placing bets both at the casino and on big contingency cases.

In November one of those bets paid off when Visa Inc. agreed to pay his client American Express Co. as much as $2.25 billion to settle an antitrust suit. The payday for Boies and his partners should be huge. For associates who worked on the case... their share of that fee depends on how each decided to roll the dice.

A thumbnail sketch of the compensation scheme:

The associates who worked on the American Express matter were offered a choice each year at bonus time. They could take the conservative route and have their annual bonus include the hours they devoted to this case. That way they'd be assured of getting some credit for those hours. The downside was that those hours aren't counted toward the contingency fee. One lawyer familiar with the matter says the firm offered this bonus option to appease associates worried that the case might lead nowhere.

Plan B allowed associates to roll their hours over to the next year. If the case paid off, they would receive a share of the contingency fee proportionate to those hours. Ka-ching!

According to Boies, somewhere between a quarter and a half of the associates opted for the more risky approach. In hindsight, it was the right choice:

A young lawyer who placed her bets on the contingency fee could be richly rewarded. According to one former lawyer at the firm, an associate's share of such a fee is tied to hours billed. The firm takes the percentage of hours the associate contributed to the case, divides by five and applies that fraction to the fee premium. Boies confirmed that this formula is "basically right," although other factors could increase the associate's share. A hypothetical example: If an associate contributed 5 percent of the overall hours to this case and the premium fee (the amount above normal billing rates) were $100 million, the associate would get 1 percent of $100 million -- which is $1 million.

Now that's what we call a bonus. Seven figures makes even Wachtell bonuses look paltry.

As noted in Susan Beck's article, the case was filed in 2004, so it was kicking around for several years. But even if you spread $1 million out over four bonus cycles, it still comes out to a nice chunk of change. And presumably some of the BSF associates who worked on the AmEx matter also worked on other cases, making the AmEx bonus just a part of their total compensation.

Gamble Pays Off for Some Boies Schiller Associates [The American Lawyer via NYLawyer.com (subscription)]

So yes, it's true. The rumor that Boies, Schiller & Flexner has raised starting salaries to $168,000, which has surfaced here and there in the comments, has been confirmed for us by a knowledgeable source. The news was announced last weekend at the firm meeting in Jamaica.

As for the rest of the scale, second-years make $180,000, and then there are $21,000 jumps each year thereafter (i.e., $201,000, $222,000, etc.). Additional changes to the old Boies compensation system -- primarily relating to contigency cases, which the firm does a fair amount of (and earns major moolah from) -- are being considered, but have not yet been finalized.

Now, as you may recall from this earlier post, BSF is perhaps sui generis when it comes to associate compensation matters. Associate compensation is actually directly tied to the revenue that each associate generates for the firm. So their move to $168K is not as exciting as if, say, a firm with a more traditional compensation structure -- a Cravath or Sullivan or Simpson -- made such a move.

But hey, it's still good news; the new base rates are indeed a raise over what Boies associates previously earned. But recall that, at least in the major (New York / Westchester / D.C.) offices, base salary is just an advance on total compensation, and bonus is the difference. And in the major offices, it's really all about the bonus.

Anyway, stay tuned. If you're at Boies and can provide us with more detail, please feel free to email us. Thanks.

P.S. Sorry for the radio silence. The new servers that we're expecting in 2008 are needed now (as we've repeatedly told our bosses).

Earlier: Associate Bonus Watch: Associate Compensation Overhaul at Boies Schiller?

This coming weekend, while the rest of us will be getting used to the winter snow and cold, the attorneys of Boies, Schiller & Flexner will be partying down at a resort in Jamaica. The firm is picking up the tab for its lawyers and their spouses (for the weekend; if you stay for longer, you pay for the extra nights in the hotel).

But it won't be all pleasure and no business. On Sunday, December 9, while they're in Jamaica, the BSF lawyers will hold their firm meeting -- where they will consider changes to the firm's current associate compensation model. Compensation is currently governed by a somewhat complicated formula; the quick and dirty version, as explained in the firm's Vault guide write-up, is that you get "30 percent of all revenue you bring to the firm as salary plus bonus as well as some credit for pro bono."

An email from David Boies about the possible changes was previously posted in the comments. We've now confirmed its authenticity; it appears after the jump.

Continue reading "Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 10.14 and 10.21: Plantation, All I Ever Wanted"

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