When we last saw Bryan Cave, the firm was busy acquiring Powell Goldstein and saying great things about their long term future and financial health.

Having just added so many new attorneys, the message ATL received this morning was surprising.

Two pieces of news for Bryan Cave associates today: they're deferring salary increases by 3 months and eliminating the associate shared fee program (where associates got bonuses for bringing in new clients) ...

The spin on the deferrals is that they're a better option than layoffs and less drastic than an all-out salary freeze.

Shortly after this first report, we received the full firm-wide email announcing the changes:

In light of the continuing volatility in the economy and the uncertainties in the marketplace as we move into 2009, we believe it is now prudent to implement the following actions with respect to our compensation programs:

* Deferral of Consideration of Increases for Counsel and Associates. Consideration of increases for counsel and associates will be deferred in all offices. For example, for those cities where increases were previously effective January 1, the date for 2009 will be April 1. Offices with different compensation consideration dates will

Occasionally, commenters in our layoffs posts suggest that they would be willing to give up some of their salary in exchange for keeping their jobs. So ... here's a chance to do just that, at least for a period of time.

But most Bryan Cave associates will be pissed. Because you know what would have been even more "less drastic" than an all-out salary freeze? Not acquiring the debts and liabilities of Powell Goldstein.

More tipster reaction and the full Bryan Cave memo after the jump.

The spin that Powell Goldstein chairman James McAlpin always wanted was finally released in today's Fulton County Daily Report (subscription). The official announcement blurs the lines between a "merger" between Bryan Cave and PoGo and an acquisition of PoGo by Bryan Cave, but the report is largely positive:

"This is a transformational event for us," said Powell Goldstein's chairman, James J. McAlpin Jr. "It propels us into a different league."

PoGo gives up its name in the deal and cedes leadership to the St. Louis firm. (The firm will be Bryan Cave-Powell Goldstein for two years in Atlanta and simply Bryan Cave elsewhere.) In return, PoGo's lawyers gain an international and national platform that expands the depth and breadth of their practice groups--increasing the firm's resources in areas such as intellectual property and broadening its core areas of banking, finance, real estate and litigation.

Getting swallowed up by a much larger firm and losing a 100-year old name certainly has all the bells and whistles of an acquisition, but partners on both sides characterize the deal as a "combination."

Some Bryan Cave partners, like their partners-to-be from PoGo, prefer to characterize the deal as a combination, not an acquisition--even though their firm will absorb the smaller one.

"It's a combination, not a slash-and-burn acquisition," said Kenneth L. Henderson, the Bryan Cave partner who's overseeing the integration. Henderson was a member of the 170-lawyer New York firm Robinson Silverman, Pearce, Aronsohn & Berman that Bryan Cave acquired six years ago in its last major acquisition.

Whatever it's called, PoGo associates really only care about their future job security. More on that after the jump.

We reported earlier that Powell Goldstein is set to be acquired by Bryan Cave. We've been told to expect an official announcement from Bryan Cave on Monday.

PoGo has still not directly responded to ATL about the rumors that a number of associates, staff, and partners could be on their way out of the door. But we understand that they have sent around an internal email addressing some concerns in light of the merger information. A tipster tells us that the email offered the following clarifications:

1) Everyone has a job. This is a specific term of the deal.

2) BC wants to expand the Atlanta office. ...

3) We have no problems at all with our finances. Credit is strong, bank relationships are strong, etc.

We have not gotten our hands on the merger agreement between PoGo and Bryan Cave. But the "promise" that every job is secured is encouraging. The email does not speak to our previous reporting that PoGo's banks threatened to pull their credit line if a merger was not reached. But regardless of what could have happened, the firm's contention that they are in a strong financial position is certainly worth noting.

The Chairman's conference call after the jump.

Heller Ehrman and Thelen dissolved after big time mergers fell through. While our readers have been speculating on the next capitulation to the financial crisis, it seems that Powell Goldstein has narrowly avoided a full scale dissolution thanks to Bryan Cave. A tipster reports:

Powell Goldstein, which has been an prominent firm in Atlanta since 1909, will no longer exist next week. PoGo partners voted last week to approve an acquisition by Bryan Cave, and BC will announce the acquisition on Monday.

Bryan Cave did not return multiple calls requesting comment on the story. Meanwhile, a PoGo spokesperson said "I have nothing to report" when asked about the acquisition.

As we understand it, the union between Bryan Cave and PoGo is not a "merger" so much as it is a buy-out. Additional tipsters have reported that nobody from PoGo -- not staff, not associates, not even partners -- is safe. Equity partners could be let go early next week.

Putting together the rumors after the jump.

We continue our series on no offers with new information from DLA and Bryan Cave.

First the good news. The reports on DLA Piper no offers seem to be exaggerated. We had heard that as many as 1/3rd of the of the DLA summer calls had been no offered. But DLA spokesperson Jason Costa assures us that the final number of offers will be "significantly above" 2/3rds of the class.

Costa reports that DLA's summer associate review is still ongoing. Therefore there are DLA summers who will receive offers from the firm, but have not yet been contacted.

But we're not living in the 90s and a 100% offer rate is probably a little too much to hope for. Costa emphasized that an "overwhelming majority" of summers will receive offers.

Costa also said that he was not aware of any summers that had been "wait-listed," or received offers yet told to continue looking for other employment.

The people at Bryan Cave also emphasized the strength of their summer class, while admitting that not every summer associate would be receiving an offer.

After the jump, firms try to locate the magic number.

The Vault 100 march continues! In this series of open threads, we list the firms, and you all discuss their upsides and downsides. We'll be wrapping this puppy up this week.

Here are the next ten (with prestige scores in parentheses):

71. Nixon Peabody LLP (5.218)
72. Hunton & Williams LLP (5.208)
73. Perkins Coie LLP (5.119)
74. Reed Smith LLP (5.057)
75. Patton Boggs LLP (5.050)
76. Chadbourne & Parke LLP (4.997)
77. Bryan Cave LLP (4.969)
78. Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP (4.967)
79. Howrey LLP (4.926)
80. Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP (4.910)

Usually, we have fun with the "notable perks" chosen by Vault. But as we move down the list, the perks are becoming distinctly less notable -- e.g., gym membership discounts, free parking, and "good views." Oh well.

You know what to do! Have at it in the comments.

Earlier: Vault 100 Open Threads - 2009

Or a richness of embarrassment. Today we're going to name not one, but seven Lawyers of the Day.

Our first Lawyer of the Day is Mark Mersel (formerly of Morrison & Foerster, now at Bryan Cave). In case you missed the shout-out in Morning Docket, here's a bit more, from the WSJ Law Blog:

It's a litigator's worst dream -- costing your client serious money by missing a filing deadline.

That nightmare was a reality for MoFo, which appears to have cost its client Toshiba America $1 million when it was one-minute late -- 1 minute! -- in filing a motion for attorneys fees.

For the exciting details -- which involve a courier zooming through traffic on a motorcycle, and an unfortunately timed train -- read the full post.

The other six Lawyers of the Day are no strangers to these pages. Let's call them the Qualcomm Six. From the Recorder:

Six attorneys in the Qualcomm Inc. discovery fiasco were sanctioned Monday for "monumental" discovery violations and referred to the State Bar of California for possible discipline.

Day Casebeer Madrid & Batchelder attorneys James Batchelder, Adam Bier, Kevin Leung, Christian Mammen and Lee Patch, and Heller Ehrman's Stanley Young were sanctioned and harshly criticized by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major in a 42-page order. The ruling follows a patent infringement trial Qualcomm had brought against Broadcom Corp.

The attorneys "assisted Qualcomm in committing this incredible discovery violation by intentionally hiding or recklessly ignoring relevant documents, ignoring or rejecting numerous warning signs that Qualcomm's document search was inadequate, and blindly accepting Qualcomm's unsupported assurances that its document search was adequate," Major wrote.

Document production sucks -- or, to put it more nicely, it's a thankless task. It's time-intensive, mind-numbingly boring, and a general pain in the a**. If you do it right, you're just doing your job; but if you screw it up, consider yourself screwed. Monumentally.

Six Lawyers in Qualcomm Case Sanctioned for 'Monumental' Discovery Violations [The Recorder via Law.com]
Judge rebukes Qualcomm, its attorneys [San Diego Union-Tribune via Blogonaut]
A Litigator's Nightmare: Late Filing Costs Client $1 Million [WSJ Law Blog]

In "selected U.S. offices." Here's the memo, which was issued yesterday:

From: Professional Resources
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 12:31 PM
To: LAWYERS
Cc: NBREC
Subject: Selected US Offices - Associate Salary Increases

Consistent with the Firm’s effort to attract top tier talent in each of our markets, the Firm continuously monitors each market to determine if our compensation and benefits packages remain competitive. In this regard, we are pleased to announce the following increases in Associate starting salaries affecting our Chicago, Irvine, Kansas City, Santa Monica, St. Louis and Washington, DC offices.

Effective January 1, 2008, Associate starting salaries in our Chicago, Irvine, Santa Monica and Washington, DC offices will be increased from the present $145,000 to $160,000. Effective June 1, 2008, Associate starting salaries in our St. Louis office will increase from the present $110,000 to $120,000 and Associate starting salaries in our Kansas City office will increase from the present $105,000 to $110,000.

The Firm will continue to monitor compensation trends in all of our markets around the world during this dynamic period in our industry. Thank you for your continued efforts on behalf of the Firm and its clients.

Lynn McCreary and Steven Kornblau

No word on what compensation for more senior classes will look like.

The move to $160,000 in Bryan Cave's Chicago, D.C., and California offices, which won't take place until next year, comes months after $160K became the new market rate in these locations. But hey, better late than never. Congratulations, Bryan Cave associates!

If "attorney-client networking" conjures up images of bars and baseball games, prepare to give those expectations the boot. The shoe is on the other foot at Bryan Cave:

For the 53 shoppers who attended a "shoe event" sponsored by law firm Bryan Cave LLP on a recent Tuesday evening -- all of them female lawyers and their female corporate clients or friends -- getting to know one another while browsing designer shoes was a refreshing change from being the lone woman at a client dinner or sports event.

"The shoes were an icebreaker for starting conversations," says Elizabeth DaSilva, managing director, Global Trust Services, Americas at Bank of New York. She mulled a pair of high-heeled evening pumps but quickly turned her attention to the other shoppers. "It was the first opportunity I'd had to talk to lawyers my firm uses about something other than an immediate work assignment," adds Ms. DaSilva.

It'd be easy to mock this kind of thing, and we're not above that. (Firms, embrace the girly! The Pillsbury Winthrop Bake-Off! The Stroock Stitch 'n' Bitch! Quilting with Quinn Emanuel!)

But in all seriousness, we're totally in favor of some girl-on-girl bonding action.

In a perfect world, all of us would enjoy the same androgynous pastimes, but the reality is that men and women often gravitate toward different activities (see, for example, this article positing that 90 percent of golfers are male because the game is "the modern version of Pleistocene hunting on the savanna"). There's nothing wrong with firms recognizing that business development needn't always involve liquor and/or ritualized combat.

"Okay everyone, smile and say "De-Equitized!"

Lavi Soloway didn't caption the photographs he took at last night's LeGal dinner. So we decided to help him out.

More photos, after the jump.

Here are some recent, noteworthy moves within the D.C. legal community:

Inside the Administration:

* Conservative legal superstar Jennifer Brosnahan has left the White House Counsel's office, where she was one of the more senior associate counsels, to become the new deputy general counsel at the Department of Transportation.

From government to private practice:

* As previously reported by Ken Vogel of The Politico, Michael Toner has left the Federal Election Commission, to build an election law practice at Bryan Cave (which, by the way, recently raised associate salaries).

Within the Fourth Estate:

* One of the most knowledgeable legal scribes around, Benjamin Wittes, is leaving the Washington Post, after some nine years at the venerable paper.

(Wittes, the author of Confirmation Wars (previously praised here), is currently on book leave from the Post. He's working on another book about the federal courts.)

FEC Revolving Door Swings Faster [The Politico]

Being on the LIST OF SHAME gets more shameful by the day, as one law firm after another drops off of it.

The latest to leave: Bryan Cave. From a source at the firm:

The professional development people had a meeting with the associates this morning. New York associates will be getting the $15k raise [to $160K] across the board. DC and LA first years are going to $145K. Details to come in a memo to be distributed later today.

Thank God it's Friday -- the most popular day for pay raise news. Will more announcements arrive later today? Stay tuned.

Update: Thanks, 12:42!

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of associate pay raises (scroll down)