The latest bailout news is making Simpson Thacher's $300,000 contract to advise the Treasury Department on the $700 billion bailout plan look even more like chump change.

We wrote before about firms that were offered bailout love. Well, Reuters reports that Hughes Hubbard and Squire Sanders are going to get mad bailout love, to the tune of $11 million:

Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP have each been awarded a contract for roughly $5.5 million to help shepherd about 2,000 financial firms through the program that would see the government buy company shares, the Treasury Department said on Monday.

Looks like Hughes Hubbard's strategizing with the acquisition of boutique bankruptcy firm Luskin, Stern & Eisler may have paid off.

Two law firms to help U.S. Treasury dole out aid [Reuters]
The End of Bailout Transparency Already? [BailoutSleuth via WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: The Firms That Were Offered Bailout Love
Musical Chairs: Hughes Hubbard Is Ready For Some Action

We mentioned that litigation boutiques would likely be big winners from the market collapse. Some small firms are already cashing in. The bankruptcy boutique of Luskin, Stern & Eisler has merged with Hughes Hubbard & Reed.

There was enough room on the Hughes Hubbard bandwagon for everybody at Luskin. All 8 lawyers will be joining Hughes Hubbard's bankruptcy practice, with name partner Richard Stern becoming the co-chair of the group.

The merger makes perfect sense if Hughes Hubbard is trying to position itself to capitalize on creditor actions coming out of the Wall Street meltdown. Of course, that is not what Hughes Hubbard says they are doing:

Hughes Hubbard says it is merely a coincidence that the deal was finalized after a week of heavy financial turmoil.

"We had wanted to do this for a while," James Modlin, co-chair of the firm's lateral hiring committee, tells The Am Law Daily. "Starting last summer, we realized the time was right to bolster our bankruptcy practice. Bankruptcy goes in cycles, and we were thinking this might be a boom time."

Maybe Hughes Hubbard does own the world's best Magic 8 Ball. However they planned this acquisition, they got the execution exactly right.

Hughes Hubbard Makes Timely Acquisition of Bankruptcy Boutique [Law.com]

This marks the end of our review of the firms in the Vault 100. This is the final bunch up for discussion (with prestige scores in parentheses):

91. Lovells (4.494)
92. Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP (4.489)
93. Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP (4.478)
94. Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP (4.459)
95. Kilpatrick Stockton LLP (4.452)
96. Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP (4.439)
97. Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP (4.421)
98. Seyfarth Shaw (4.399)
99. Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC (4.394)
100. Fenwick & West LLP (4.373)

Discuss. Dissect. Compare. Contrast. Most of all, enjoy.

Earlier: Vault 100 Open Threads - 2009

To respond to yesterday's question: No, it's not all over. There's still some gas left in the associate bonus watch tank.

Last night brought an a bonus announcement from Hughes Hubbard and Reed. It's a somewhat complicated bonus system, based on a system of "tiers." A tipster identifies these highlights:

Tier 1 = 1950 hours
Tier 2 = 2100 hours
Not certain about tier 3 or 4
Class of 2004, 2005, and 2006 get $7500 for reaching 1950, plus half of special bonus
No pro-rated bonus for class of 2007

The associates we heard from are unhappy with the bone Old Mother Hubbard has thrown them:

"HHR has managed to make the 'special bonus' tied to billable hours. That kind of sucks. Glad to see that they are increasing them for next year though."

"It is a disappointing day for Hughes Hubbard associates, as bonuses are far below market. Still a great place to work, though."

You can check out the Hughes Hubbard bonus memo, which announces the firm's 2007 bonuses as well as its "enhance[d]" bonus system for 2008, after the jump.

Update: In response to the commenters, here's a note on our methodology. If a firm is on either the Am Law 100 or the Vault 100, we'll run their bonus announcement. HHR is #85 on the Vault 100.

Welcome to this morning's open thread for associate salary information and news about pay raises.

First, here are a few links to mainstream media coverage of associate compensation from the past few days. We've noted which firms are discussed in each article, so you can decide whether you wish to click through and read the whole piece.

1. Three More Firms Raise First-Year Associate Pay [Legal Times]

Firms discussed: WilmerHale, Steptoe & Johnson, and Patton Boggs.

2. Most Calif. Firms Still Not Matching N.Y. Associates' Pay [The Recorder]

Firms discussed: O'Melveny & Myers; Morrison & Foerster; Sheppard Mullin; Paul Hastings; Quinn Emanuel.

3. Fish & Richardson, Covington & Burling Join Salary-Raise Parade [Legal Times]

Firms discussed: Fish & Richardson; Covington & Burling.

4. The First One Falls [Fulton County Daily Report]

Firms discussed: Troutman Sanders; Morris, Manning & Martin; Sutherland Asbill & Brennan; Kilpatrick Stockton.

Second, after the jump, a verified memo from Hughes Hubbard & Reed. If your firm has a memo or email announcement that hasn't previously appeared on the main page of ATL, please email it to us. We will then add them as updates to this post, or publish them in a subsequent post. Thanks.

Law firm bonus season ended some time ago. Most Biglaw shops paid out bonuses to their associates weeks ago.

But a few firms are still in the process of announcing and distributing the dough. For example, we hear that the Chicago office of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw might not announce until next month.

Hughes Hubbard & Reed just announced its bonuses yesterday. They appear to be a bit below market (although the firm employs a "tiering" system that's different from the bonus structure at most other places).

For those of you interested in non-New York compensation information, the Hughes Hubbard memo addresses L.A. and D.C. bonuses as well. Check it out, after the jump.

A number of big-ticket moves to report today. The most notable involve government lawyers:

Government to Private Sector:

* Debra Wong Yang, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California (Los Angeles), has resigned from the USAO. She's headed to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, as a partner (duh). Ka-ching!

Yang will work out of the firm's L.A. office. She will co-chair its Crisis-Management Group, along with former Solictor General Theodore Olson and another former federal prosecutor, Randy Mastro.

At Main Justice:

* Jonathan Cohn (OT 2000/Thomas) is now the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Appellate. He was previously the DAAG overseeing the Office of Immigration Litigation (and will continue to discharge that duty until a successor is found).

At right: Jonathan Cohn and his wife, Rachel Brand (OT 2002/Kennedy), the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy. Although his portfolio has changed (and we'd say for the better), he doesn't have to get new business cards, since he's still a DAAG.

Out the Door:

* Casualties of the stock options backdating scandal: Stuart Nichols, former general counsel of KLA-Tencor, and David Lubben, former general counsel of UnitedHealth.

Lateral Moves:

* Corporate lawyer Arthur Hull Hayes III, to Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, from Dewey Ballantine.

* Technology, media, and telecom lawyer Carole Aciman, to Greenberg Traurig, from Hughes Hubbard & Reed.

* King & Spalding: The intellectual property practice acquires five new lawyers: Kenneth Sonnenfeld (NY) and John Harbin, Tony Askew, Steve Schaetzel, and Jim Johnson (in Atlanta). They came from Morgan & Finnegan (Sonnenfeld), Powell Goldstein (Harbin), and Kilpatrick Stockton (Askew, Schaetzel and Johnson).

And Another One Gone, And Another One Gone... [WSJ Law Blog]
L.A. U.S. Attorney Debra Yang Resigns; Will Join Gibson Dunn [WSJ Law Blog]
NY Partners Switching Firms [NYLawyer.com]
More NY Partners Switching Firms [NYLawyer.com]

We have oodles and oodles of moves -- some actual, and some rumored -- to share with you today.

Lateral Moves:

* Antitrust lawyer Jeffrey Brennan and mass torts/products liability lawyer Kathleen O'Connor, to Dechert, from the FTC and Merck, respectively.

(Can O'Connor be the "Countess of Toxic Torts"? The title of "Queen of Toxic Torts" is already taken -- by Skadden's Sheila Birnbaum, with whom we are obsessed.)

* Leveraged finance lawyer Christina Ungeheuer, to Latham & Watkins (Frankfurt), from Milbank Tweed (Frankfurt).

* William Nordwind (legislative and government affairs) and Michael Volpe (labor), to Venable, from Capitol Hill (an interminable subcommittee name) and Clifton Budd, respectively.

* Financial restructuring lawyer Stephen Peppiatt, to Bingham McCutchen (London), from Shearman & Sterling.

* Trusts and estates lawyer Kenneth Page, to Hughes Hubbard & Reed, from Coudert Brothers (where he headed their T&E practice).

Also, here's more detail about a move that we wrote about last week -- the move of Dennis Orr and three colleagues from Mayer Brown (NY) to Morrison & Foerster (NY).

Shoes Waiting to Drop?

* Over at scandal-ridden computing giant HP, Ann Baskins "remains employed by the company as general counsel." But her days may be numbered. (The commenters at the WSJ Law Blog are certainly calling for her head.) [WSJ Law Blog]

Think Tanks:

* William Gale has been named Vice President and Director, Economic Studies, at the Brookings Institution.

NY Lawyers Switching Firms [NYLawyer.com]
MoFo New York hires four-partner litigation team from Mayer Brown [Legal Week Student]
H-P Mess Casts Harsh Spotlight on Ann Baskins [WSJ Law Blog]
Gale Named VP & Director of Economic Studies at Brookings [TaxProf Blog]