Cheapness

Is This A Law Firm, or the Salvation Army? Greenberg Traurig Launches ‘Collection Drive’ (and Hints at No More Pay Raises)

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Greenberg Traurig logo Above the Law blog.gifFrom the year-end message of Cesar L. Alvarez, CEO of Greenberg Traurig (one of our favorite firms here at ATL — see, e.g., here, here and here):

I had a few thoughts for 2007 and 2008 that I would like to share as my year-end message.

First, 2007. As of today, Sunday, December 30, 2007, we have collected $313.5 million during our collection drive and expect to collect approximately $16.5 million on Monday, the 31st, to reach $330 million for our December collection drive. Although we expect to be short by $10 million of our goal, this is still a great accomplishment when you consider the housing situation, the subprime issues and the dislocation of the credit markets that prevented a number of deals from being completed this year.

Read the rest of Cesar Alvarez’s message — in which he spreads holiday cheer doom and gloom, jawboning down associate compensation expectations — after the jump.

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Morgan Lewis to… Free Ski Trips?

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ski skiier skiing Morgan Lewis Bockius Stratton Mountain Above the Law blog.jpgLast month, Morgan Lewis & Bockius issued a bonus non-announcement — a placeholder memo, indicating that bonus news would be forthcoming.
Perhaps MLB associates have reason to be optimistic. The firm must be saving some money, since it’s making associates pay their own way on the ski trip of Business and Finance Practice Group. Our tipster observes: “[T]his is yet another reflection of Morgan Lewis’ caring attitude.”
When law firms hold “destination events” — e.g., the Boies Schiller firm meeting in Jamaica, the Kirkland & Ellis retreat at the Hotel Hershey, and other retreats mentioned here — they often pay for their associates to attend. But there’s no rule holding that they must do so, especially if attendance is voluntary (which is the case here).
And hey — at least the firm has negotiated a special ML&B discount!
(ML&B ski trip memo, after the jump.)

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Hogan & Hartson to… Two Extra Days Off!

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Hogan Hartson LLP Above the Law blog.JPGLate last month, we posted what appeared to be a White & Case memo, concerning requests for vacation during the Christmas week this year. There was some debate in the comments about the memo’s authenticity and/or how widely it was distributed (e.g., maybe it was just for the M&A group). But the gist of the memo, which shouldn’t be that shocking, is that everybody wants that week off — so if you were hoping to take vacation that week, you might want to rethink your plans.
Down in D.C., Hogan & Hartson apparently has a much more generous holiday policy. They just announced that, since Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on Tuesdays this year, the firm will be closed on both of the preceding Mondays: December 24 and December 31. The firm characterizes these office closings as “an expression of thanks for the dedication and hard work of our lawyers and staff this past year.”
But are associates happy about this news? In some quarters, it’s being viewed cynically:

We have been fighting with H&H regarding decent bonuses this year, especially given their usual disgraceful examples of bonuses. This seems to be their way of bonusing us (without actually paying). Give us more days off, so it is more difficult to make your minimum hours the next year. The partners are tight and don’t seem to want to pay any form of market or even reasonable bonuses despite unprecedented productivity and billing rates this last fiscal year.

For those of you who are curious, the Hogan & Hartson memo appears after the jump.
Earlier: Making the Case for a White Christmas at Biglaw

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A Very Exciting Clerkship Opportunity

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law clerk judicial clerkship Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgFederal judicial clerkships are coveted positions — and for good reason. They burnish your resume, enhance your connections, and give you a view of litigation from the other side of the bench.
So we’d like to bring you news of a very special clerkship position. Please keep in mind, however, that it’s not for everyone. The ideal candidate will have no student loans and no kids to support. A trust fund and/or a well-to-do family are helpful.
An ATL tipster was recently offered this clerkship position:

Dear [redacted]:

Although Judge [redacted] has hired a clerk for his 2008-09 funded position, he still has an opening for his unfunded position. The unfunded position carries all of the responsibilities, prestige, and future opportunities of the funded position; the only difference is the salary.

Please let me know if you are interested in being considered for this position or if you would like more information about this position.

Thank you,
[redacted]
United States District Court, [redacted] District of Texas

Pretty insane, right? We expect many offerees tell the judge to take his clerkship and shove it.
But on the other hand, if you can afford to live without a salary for a year, it might not be a bad gig. You can get all the prestige and experience of a clerkship with a federal judge — then make it up on the back end, by going to a law firm that pays a $50,000 clerkship bonus (roughly equal to or even more than what you would have earned in a year of clerking anyway, assuming you go straight into the clerkship from law school).

Why You Shouldn’t Work for Wal-Mart
(Or Buy Flip-Flops from Them Either)

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Wal-Mart logo Walmart AboveTheLaw Above the Law blog.jpgWe realize we’re late to the party on this one. The WSJ Law Blog wrote about it last week. We linked to it today in Morning Docket, but based on the email we’ve received about it, clearly many of you have more to say about it.
News flash: Wal-Mart is cheap. From the WSJ Law Blog:

Before any more law firms match the latest bump in associate compensation, they may want to take stock of this memo issued yesterday by Wal-Mart. [T]he memo raises concerns about the recent increase in associate starting pay to $160,000.

“The salaries that law firms choose to pay their junior associates are none of our concern,” writes Miguel Rivera Sr., associate general counsel for the retail chain.

Oof! But Rivera continues, “Based on the size and frequency of the rate increase requests that we have seen over the past three years, it appears that many of the requested increases are largely attributable to the steady, nationwide increases in junior associate salaries.”…

“We are today announcing a moratorium on across-the-board rate increases. Until further notice, we will only consider reasonable, individual requests for rate increases for those attorneys in your firm who are performing at an exceptional level and whose experience and knowledge is adding substantial value towards meeting Wal-Mart’s legal objectives.”

Update: Due to your requests, we’ve placed the rest of this post — which includes a rather disgusting picture of diseased feet, so consider yourself warned — after the jump.

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(Or Buy Flip-Flops from Them Either)”

The Skadden Gays: Out and Proud, or Tacky and Loud?

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Skadden Arps Slate Meagher Flom Abovethelaw Above the Law online legal tabloid.jpgThat’s the debate currently raging in the Los Angeles office of Skadden. It was triggered by some exuberant, multicolored emails from a Gay Colleague, promoting the Skadden LA AIDS Walk team.
From the delicious (but sporadically updated) Skadden Insider:

[T]he e-mails weren’t well received by everyone because “they are pretty aggressive and unprofessional. Just the tone of voice, the five thousand colors, the naming of names of who contributed and who didn’t.”

Our source continued: “And of course, some ignorant fools are going around saying, “I don’t go around calling myself the ‘straight associate’! Anyway, it was pretty funny. It was a gay gay gay Friday.”

Check out the full post, which reprints the (literally) colorful email, over here.
And read about another instance of public shaming at Skadden, after the jump.

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What’s Up at WilmerHale? The Baltimore Office

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WilmerHale Wilmer Hale 2 Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.JPGToe up, that is. After our recent post about WilmerHale having “issues,” multiple sources wrote in to tell us that the firm’s Baltimore office is closing, effective January 1, 2008.
Once again, the firm ignored us did not respond to our request for comment (which we, like Robert Novak, don’t like very much). If you have more information, about the Baltimore office closing or any other WilmerHale developments, feel free to email us.
Here are two comments that caught our eye in the last WilmerHale thread:

“the original post about the WH employee with cancer is ABSOLUTELY TRUE. this story is not a fabrication. this person DEFINATELY [sic] exists, is back at work, in a different dept, different job. for all of you who dont believe this story, pull your head out of your a***s. wcp has gone to hell, a f*cking billable hr GULAG….”

“WH is a billable hours hell, however the summer associates get wined and dined all summer, boat trips, KenCen, pool parties at partners’ houses, free lunches, breakfast sessions, receptions, goodie bags full of WH items. You name it. The support staff that babysits them all summer get diddly. The personality of WCP has changed 180 degrees since merger with H&D, and not for the good. Morale among the worker bees (support staff) is lower than snake s**t. They’re even asking long time partners to leave, for whatever reason. WCP used to be based in Washington, now takes orders from the Boston office of H&D…..”

A billable hours “gulag” or “hell”? Times sure have changed from the 1930s! Back then, attorneys at WH predecessor firms worked under 1,500 hours a year (but for starting salaries of $1,200). See here.
Attorney Working Hours and Salaries [RumorsDaily.com]
Earlier: What’s Up With WilmerHale?

What’s Up With WilmerHale?

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WilmerHale Wilmer Hale 2 Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.JPGSome time ago, we received this interesting tip, about WilmerHale (in D.C.):

WH continues to go downhill. Why is it that no one ever seems to write or care about this?

I’m an associate and treated fairly well. But the support staff receives brutal treatment. I heard that one of our HR people who almost died of cancer this spring was told that the firm couldn’t accommodate her disability because it didn’t make “good business sense.” She has been here for 13 years, [with] excellent evaluations, and has been fighting for her life. Now she has to fight for her job when her doctor says she still is disabled. She [was] given six weeks by our Chief Human Resources Officer to come back full-time. After one week she was demoted and given no particular reason why.

It won’t be long before they treat the rest of us the same way. By the way, lawyers and staff alike continue to leave in droves. Does anyone care that a Washington institution has crumbled into hubris and greed?

The firm did not respond to our inquiry into this item. If you have more info, feel free to email us.
A little more about WilmerHale, including some happy news, after the jump.

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A Primer for Partners: How To Screw Associates Out of Pay Raises

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100 dollar bill Above the Law Above the Law law firm salary legal blog legal tabloid Above the Law.JPGGreedy law firm associates view ATL as a helpful resource. But what about Biglaw partners? They’re greedy too, y’know.
Well, here’s something for all you partners out there. A tipster alerted us to this audio conference, taking place later this month:

*************************************************
IOMA AUDIO CONFERENCES!

ASSOCIATE COMPENSATION:

STRATEGIES TO ATTACK PAY PLANS THAT DRAIN PARTNER PROFITS

September 20, 2007 * 2:00 – 3:30 PM

REGISTER TODAY!
*************************************************

The full conference description, plus commentary, after the jump.

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Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Alston & Bird, Called Out

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Alston Bird LLP Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgWe’re delighted to see that ATL has so many readers in ATL. And we apologize for that one time we were mean to you. (We don’t know what got into us; guess it was that time of the month.)
This morning’s post about the Alston & Bird raise, which will take effect shortly before your kids enter law school, generated robust commentary. It also earned us another shout-out in the mainstream media. From an Atlanta reader:

“Above the Law was mentioned in the Daily Report article on the Alston & Bird raise. In fact, the reporter confronted A&B’s hiring partner with some of the comments to your post.”

Here’s an excerpt from Meredith Hobbs’s excellent piece:

[A]ssociates posting anonymously to the Above the Law blog, a gossip and news Web site about big law firms, were not happy with Alston’s pay increase. They contended that associate pay in Atlanta still lags behind that in other comparable markets, such as Houston and Dallas….

Several blog posters criticized Alston for pay compression, pointing out that the firm is not increasing pay for more senior classes at the same $15,000 rate as for first-years.

“A&B did raise today. Starts at $145K, tops at $190K. So much for solving compression. Folks are devestated [sic],” wrote “Anonymous” a scant hour after Alston announced the increase last evening.

“First years get a 15K raise. I get 5K,” groused another.

When told of the comments, [A&B hiring partner Jonathan W. Lowe] responded: “If this is true, I am certainly disappointed to hear that our associates are unhappy with this pay raise. We try to determine what the market is with respect to associate salary in each of the cities where we have offices, and this was our best effort at determining the market in Atlanta at this time.”

We agree with our reader’s take on on Jon Lowe’s response:

“His reaction to the negative comments seemed to catch him off guard. You almost get the impression he expected to hear only the sound of Cristal corks popping.”

But hey, A&B associates, it’s not all bad. Remember the firm’s special generosity, back in May?
If this isn’t ringing a bell, your recollection may be refreshed by two emails, reprinted after the jump.

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Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: A Few More Memos

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100 dollar bill Abovethelaw Above the Law law firm salary legal blog legal tabloid Above the Law.JPGA quick reminder: We want your memos. We hear rumors of associate pay raises at particular firms all the time, but we generally don’t treat the news as official until we see a memorandum (assuming there is one). Please send them to us by email.
We reprint below two memos that arrived in our inbox not too long ago. First, there’s a memo from LeBoeuf Lamb, placing their associates in Hartford — recently covered here — on the $160K scale.
Second, there’s a memo from Foley & Lardner. It has raised its starting salary to $160,000, but not effective until September 2007, and it’s not following the standard $160K scale all the way up the ladder. Our source wrote:

Attached is the memo Foley & Lardner circulated today regarding adjustments to compensation. This was circulated a day after a separate memo from management announcing the increases and advising that management would review compensation prior to the beginning of the next fiscal year and would consider making modifications to amounts and structures at that time.

Management also referenced in the memo “exploring alternative career paths for associates,” but provided no additional information as to what that means.

Sounds a tad Orwellian to us. “Alternative career paths” = flipping burgers in the Foley cafeteria? But maybe we’re just being paranoid.
If you’re interested, you can check out the memos after the jump.

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Squire Sanders Wants Its Money… Over His Dead Body

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tombstone cemetery RIP Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgFrom the Department of Astute Observations:

“Some former Steel Hector partners suggested it may have been unwise to make a large loan to a partner allegedly on the brink of bankruptcy.”

Ya think?
Firm Sues Estate of Dead Lawyer for Loan Repayment [Daily Business Review (Miami / South Florida)]