Boutique Law Firms

Susman & Godfrey Wins Prize for Most Self-Aggrandizing Pay Raise Announcement

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Susman Godfrey LLP Above the Law blog.JPGThe litigation boutique of Susman Godfrey is prestigious. And it is well-paying, especially around bonus time.
It’s also not shy about honking its own horn (which shouldn’t be surprising, given its Texas roots). In fact, Susman Godfrey just issued a press release about its pay raises that might make Gallion & Spielvogel blush.
Here are some excerpts (emphases added):

TOP LITIGATION BOUTIQUE SUSMAN GODFREY RAISES ASSOCIATES SALARIES IN LOS ANGELES & NEW YORK OFFICE

Susman Godfrey announced today a salary increase for their associates in Los Angeles and New York. The compensation package for first year associates joining their Los Angeles and New York offices is $160,000, plus benefits. Already among the best paid associates nation-wide, the compensation package for first year associates in their Houston, Dallas, and Seattle offices is $140,000, plus benefits….

Susman Godfrey also pays year end merit bonuses to associates who have been with the firm for at least one year. Last year, associate bonuses topped out at $120,000. In 2005, some associates received a walloping $150,000 in year-end perks. More commonly, our merit bonuses have accounted for 20% to 60% of an associate’s annual compensation and are far in excess of bonuses paid by our competitors. Thus, associates’ year-end merit bonuses tend to range from an additional $30,000 to $80,000 on top of the base salary.

“We are also the bestest law firm ever. Simply put, our competitors just suck.”
You can read the full press release, in all its glory, by clicking here.

Top Litigation Boutique Susman Godfrey Raises Associates Salaries in Los Angeles & New York [Susman Godfrey]

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Law Students Having A Cake and Eating It, Too

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crybaby crying kid cry tear tears Above the Law blog.jpgThat’s what the student group discussed in this WSJ Law Blog post should be renamed.
Here’s our candid take. A lot of what these students are looking for — in terms of reduced hours and improved work-life balance, in exchange for a smaller paycheck — already exists. It can be found by working for a midsize or small law firm, working for government, working as in-house counsel, or starting your own practice.
But it’s futile to try and export these principles to large law firms. There’s a reason they call it “Biglaw.” If you want the money and prestige of working for an AmLaw 100 law firm, you need to make sacrifices.
The members of Law Students Building A Better Legal Profession may respond: “Well, we ARE willing to make sacrifices. As we state in our manifesto, ‘We are willing to be paid less in exchange for a better working life.’”
Okay, fine. So why don’t you hang up your own shingle, or go work for a midsize or boutique law firm? We hear Gallion & Spielvogel is accepting resumes.
In other words: Why do you feel entitled to a specific work/life balance in the context of a large law firm? Why can’t you just practice in some other professional context? Or leave the law altogether if you find something you enjoy more?
News flash: there is life, and legal practice, outside of the AmLaw or Vault 100. Hundreds of thousands of American lawyers work as solo practitioners, for midsize or small firms, for in-house legal departments, or for state or federal government. They have happy professional and personal lives. They earn enough to feed themselves — and even their kids, too.
But if some attorneys WANT to work 2500+ hours a year, never see their families, and go through multiple divorces, in exchange for seven-figure paydays, who are you to spoil their fun?
Maybe you don’t enjoy smoking, or drinking, or sky-diving. But if these activities don’t affect you — secondhand smoke isn’t that much of a problem, thanks to indoor smoking bans — then you should let other people engage in them.
Live and let live, we say. Live and let live.
You Say You Want a Big-Law Revolution [WSJ Law Blog]
Law Students Building A Better Legal Profession [official website]

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Our Favorite Skadden Associate Moves On

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Jonas Blank Skadden Arps Above the Law blog.jpgRemember Jonas Blank? He was the fellow who, while working at Skadden Arps as a summer associate in 2003, sent out this infamous email:

“I’m busy doing jack shit. Went to a nice 2hr sushi lunch today at Sushi Zen. Nice place. Spent the rest of the day typing emails and bullshitting with people. Unfortunately, I actually have work to do — I’m on some corp finance deal, under the global head of corp finance, which means I should really peruse these materials and not be a fuckup…”

“So yeah, Corporate Love hasn’t worn off yet… But just give me time…”

Despite this problematic email — which he meant to send to one friend, but instead sent to the firm’s entire underwriting group, partners included — Blank went on to full-time employment at Skadden after graduating from Harvard Law.

After several (no doubt thrilling) years at Skadden, Blank — accurately described by the New Yorker as “handsome” (see photo) — is moving on.* As reported by the Skadden Insider blog, next month Blank will be starting work as an associate at Richards, Kibbe & Orbe. We wish him the best of luck.

P.S. If you haven’t done so already, check out Skadden Insider, which started up in January. Here is its mission statement:

Welcome to the Skadden Insider, a blog created to collect and pass along (and sometimes comment on) the gossip and news making its way through the halls of a certain law firm’s offices. Whether its New York, Boston, Washington DC or Palo Alto, Skadden Insider will be your place to read the latest.

May similar blogs sprout up for every large law firm in the land! Especially Sullivan & Cromwell.

* If it appears in the New Yorker, you KNOW it’s true, because their fact-checking process is second-to-none. For purposes of this Talk of the Town item, a New Yorker fact-checker asked us: “Is it fair to say that you have ‘a boyish face’?” So presumably some recent Ivy League grad with literary aspirations had to ask Jonas Blank: “Do you consider yourself to be handsome?”

Jonas Has Left the Building [Skadden Insider]
OOPS [New Yorker / Talk of the Town]
Jonas Blank [Friendster]

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Skaddenfreude: Is Kellogg Huber Keeping Pace?

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100 dollar bill Above the Law Above the Law law firm salary legal blog legal tabloid Above the Law.JPGIn a recent post about those gargantuan Supreme Court clerkship bonuses, we mentioned Kellogg Huber, the super-elite D.C. litigation boutique.
The firm’s SCOTUS bonuses are said to hover around market — which is about $200,000 these days. But if you missed out on a Supreme Court clerkship, but managed to land a federal appeals court clerkship, the firm is worth looking into. It pays a bonus of $100,000 to federal circuit court clerks, which is the largest non-SCOTUS clerkship bonus that we’re aware of.
The rest of Kellogg’s compensation package is nothing to sneeze at. The firm pays its associates a base salary of $180,000, plus huge year-end bonuses — closer to Wachtell Lipton bonuses than regular Biglaw bonuses.
(It should be noted, though, that Kellogg associates work hard for the money. The firm can be a bit of a sweatshop.)
With such a compensation scheme in place, Kellogg Huber sat at the top of the Washington legal market for years. But now we’re hearing that, in light of recent pay raises, the firm may not be what it once was.
From a tipster (although not a source currently at the firm, so this may be off in some respects):

The associates [at Kellogg Huber] are utterly mystified because the base salaries at all levels are still $180,000. [T]his is barely even a third-year associate salary elsewhere.

It used to be that the year-end bonuses at Kellogg were out of this world. But now all the other firms have come pretty close to catching up.

In short, Kellogg has not changed its salary structure in years. What used to be top of the market is now actually bottom. Senior associates make more money at pretty much any other firm in Washington than they do at Kellogg.

Is this true? And if so, does the firm have any plans of addressing the situation? If you’re in a position to know, please drop us a line. Thanks.
Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel [official website]
Earlier: Supreme Court Clerks: Do They Live Up to the Hype?

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Gallion & Spielvogel Got A Brand New Bag

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You can check it out here: http://www.internalinvestigationlaw.com.
Sadly, their new website is understated, even tasteful. The fonts are well-chosen. The color scheme of black, red and white is catchy yet unobjectionable.
Where are the photos of the founding partners lounging about in tuxedos, making “tiger eyes” at the camera? Where is the aggressive touting of the “International Association of Networks”? And why have they removed all mention of their Long Island offices — have they closed them, or are they just trying to look less “bridge and tunnel”? (They list only their Manhattan address, in the world-famous Rockefeller Center.)
Thankfully, the website is not entirely bereft of comic fodder. This graphic is a little on the cheesy side:
Gallion & Spielvogel website Above the Law blog.JPG
“Success? Keep going until the third light, make a left. Go for a quarter-mile. Then you get to this traffic circle… Oh, it gets confusing — don’t you have GPS?”
And the attorney bios are still amusingly self-aggrandizing. We’re glad to know that a Second Circuit clerkship is still “extremely prestigious”; that Tenth Circuit clerkships are “coveted” and “prestigious” (which may be more or less prestigious than “extremely prestigious”); and that Sullivan & Cromwell is still “one of the most prominent Wall Street law firms,” representing “many of the world’s largest corporations.”
On the whole, though, the site is much improved. Kudos to Messrs. Gallion & Spielvogel!
P.S. One oopsie that we’d like to point out, in our role as helpful critic of their webpage: at the bottom of the page, it states, “For more information visit our website www.gsbarristers.com.” But that web address doesn’t offer “more information”; it has nothing on it but the firm name, as we previously noted.
Gallion & Spielvogel: Internal Investigation Law Firm [official website]
(If you’re not familiar with Gallion & Spielvogel and the firm’s previous misadventures in the world of webpage design, read these comments, as well as our prior coverage of Gallion & Spielvogel.)

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Even More Prestigious Than Gallion & Spielvogel?

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Addison Butler LLP Stephan Addison Benjamin Butler Stephen Addison.jpgWe’re short on time, so we’ll have to be brief. But we expect that you will have plenty of comments on this post.
First read this. Then read this. Thoughts?
Our two reactions:
1. This wins the Gallion & Spielvogel award for Self-Aggrandizement by a Boutique Law Firm:

Addison & Butler LLP is a full service law firm with its primary office located in the City of Chicago. Incorporating years of experience practicing law at two of the nation’s largest and most prestigious law firms, the attorneys of Addison & Butler LLP offer a full range of legal services for businesses and individuals nationwide.

“Primary office”? From their contact info page, it looks like it’s their ONLY office.
2. We think that Stephan Addison and Benjamin Butler will work well as a team. They’ve been through a lot together. And it sounds like they certainly have affection for each other, too.
Addison & Butler LLP [official website]
Earlier: Biglaw Boys Up To No Good

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A Question for Biglaw Associates: Your Money, or Your Life?

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scales of justice Above the Law.jpgThe interesting comment thread to our recent post about the Seyfarth Shaw memo — aka “We’re on the List of Shame, and We’re Telling You We’re Not Going” — reminded us of something we meant to link to earlier.
It’s an article, from this month’s ABA Journal, reporting the results of a survey of young lawyers. The survey focused on the trade-off between compensation and billable hours — in other words, money versus lifestyle. Here’s a summary of the results:

[I]f associates were given an opportunity to work—and earn—a little bit less, would they?

Yes, say an overwhelming number of young lawyers who participated in an unscientific online survey conducted by the ABA Journal in November. Respondents identified themselves as associates.

Of the 2,377 respondents who answered all or part of the survey, 84.2 percent indicated they would be willing to earn less money in exchange for lower billable-hour requirements.

A sizable minority of associates are looking for a big workload cut—31.9 percent of respondents favored a 20 percent reduction in billable hours. That was followed by a 10 percent cut in hours (chosen by 27.8 percent of respondents), a 15 percent cut (14.3 percent), a 25 percent reduction (13.5 percent) and a 5 percent cut (4.3 percent).

Heck, who wouldn’t want to work less? But the survey respondents were willing to put their money where their mouths are:

A majority of respondents—no matter how much less they wanted to work—were willing to accept a pay cut equal to the percentage reduction in their workload. (Though 15.1 percent of those looking for a 20 percent cut in billable hours would be willing to sacrifice 25 percent or 30 percent of their pay for less time at work.)

Could we see a significant rise in either true lifestyle firms, or lifestyle tracks at Biglaw firms — where associates work (and earn) less than the average Biglaw lawyer? It’s doubtful:

[P]artners and consultants say no to the idea, for the most part.

“I don’t think this would work if you want to have a very successful firm,” says Carl A. Leonard, former chairman of Morrison & Foerster. “The world has always been competitive, and it just gets more so.”

These sentiments are echoed by Paul Irving, chairman of Manatt Phelps & Phillips:

[L]owering billable-hour requirements for all his associates, [Irving] says, would not work. The firm has a starting annual salary of $145,000 and a billable-hours requirement of 2,000 hours a year.

“Our experience is that, for the most part, the people we recruit are looking for top compensation and a highly engaging work experience.”

Referring to billing 2,000+ hours, on things like document review or due diligence, as a “highly engaging work experience”? That takes the prize for our “Euphemism of the Day.”
(And that’s no mean feat. The Seyfarth Shaw memo is FULL of great doublespeak.)
The Ultimate Time-Money Trade-off [ABA Journal]
Earlier: Skaddenfreude: Seyfarth Shaw Makes Itself At Home on the List of Shame

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Skaddenfreude: Arent Fox; K&L Gates; Heller Ehrman; Keker & Van Nest; Friday Afternoon Open Thread

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100 dollar bill Above the Law Above the Law law firm salary legal blog legal tabloid Above the Law.JPGAs we move into the weekend, we have a few more associate pay raise announcements to share with you.
After the jump, there’s confirmed compensation news about Arent Fox, K&L Gates, Heller Ehrman, and Keker & Van Nest.
We’ve also heard the rumors about Jones Day (Dallas) raising to $150K, from multiple sources. But we haven’t seen a memo, and neither of our sources is at the firm itself. So even though it’s most likely true, we’re going to hold off on calling it until we hear directly from someone at Jones Day in Dallas (or at least see a memo).

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Skaddenfreude: Arent Fox; K&L Gates; Heller Ehrman; Keker & Van Nest; Friday Afternoon Open Thread”

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Gallion & Spielvogel: Evolution of a Website

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Last night, gsbarristers.com, the website of Gallion & Spielvogel — the extremely prestigious, highly regarded, supremely pedigreed, boutique law firm — looked like this:
Gallion Spielvogel 2 gsbarristers Edward Gallion Steven Spielvogel.jpg
Yup, that’s right — just lots of blank grey space. Avinti.com is an internet hosting company and service provider, which presumably hosts the Gallion & Spielvogel site.
This morning, however, gsbarristers.com sports a whole new look:
Gallion Spielvogel 3 gsbarristers Edward Gallion Steven Spielvogel.jpg
Très understated. Perhaps Gallion & Spielvogel is taking the Hollywood talent agency route, with a minimal to non-existent web presence? See, e.g., CAA (where we once worked for a summer).
We sincerely hope that this is NOT the case. We pray that the current site is merely a placeholder, to be replaced on some future date with a more elaborate presentation. We’re already missing paeans to the name partners’ “coveted,” “extremely prestigious” clerkships, as well as encomiums to their stints at Sullivan & Cromwell, “one of the most prominent Wall Street law firms,” where they represented “many of the world’s largest corporations,” and “any number” of corporate executives.
We want the old gsbarristers.com to return. Please, guys, come back — we miss you!
Gallion & Spielvogel [current, official website]
GSBarristers.com [older version of website, via Archive.org]
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Gallion & Spielvogel (scroll down)

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Gallion & Spielvogel: We Killed Kenny!!!

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And he was VERY prestigious…
Gallion Spielvogel gsbarristers Edward Gallion Steven Spielvogel.jpg
In case you don’t visit ATL in the evenings (even though we post at all hours), please check out this post from last night: Please Stop Forwarding the Gallion & Spielvogel Link To All Your Friends, While Laughing Your Ass Off.
It concerns the website of Gallion & Spielvogel, a highly esteemed boutique law firm founded by former associates of the extremely well-regarded, exceptionally international law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell. G&S is now representing associate Gera Grinberg — y’know, the guy who allegedly had an “unnatural relationship” with Aaron Charney — in connection with Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell.
As one of you suggested, we reached out to Edward Gallion and Steve Spielvogel. We inquired into the death of their delightful website.
Check out our correspondence to them, after the jump.

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Gallion & Spielvogel: We Killed Kenny!!!”

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