Williams Mullen, the large and prominent Virginia-based law firm, announced yesterday that it will be cutting associate salaries by 7.5 percent, effective in January 2010. The new starting salary for associates will be $117,000 (in all offices other than D.C.).

A firm spokesperson described this as “a business decision,” made to remain competitive in a rapidly changing market. She added that the Williams Mullen cut was comparable to steps taken by similar firms, including Hunton & Williams and McGuire Woods (which cut starting salaries for associates by 10 percent). [FN1]

“Our clients are saying, ‘You better do this,’” the Williams Mullen spokesperson said. “This is a market adjustment just like any other adjustment, just like any other business adjusting the cost of its product.” If the firm were to keep associate salaries the same in this economic environment, “our clients would look at us and say, ‘You’re no longer competitive.” She added that equity partners would also see a decline in their incomes due to market realities.

As for whether this cut might be revisited at a later date, the spokesperson noted that matching the market goes both ways. “You can adjust down, and you can adjust up,” she said. “When things start to get better, we’ll look at ways to adjust accordingly.”

[FN1] UPDATE: A point of clarification about McGuireWoods: although the firm did cut starting salaries, incoming associates at the firm are still earning more than $117,000. New hires are making $144,000 in Northern Virginia, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, while new hires in Richmond, Charlotte and Atlanta are making $130,500.

Earlier: Prior coverage of associate pay cuts

We continue our slog push through the nation’s 100 top law firms, as ranked by our friends over at Vault. Here are the next ten firms, to be discussed in the comments to this post:

71. Reed Smith
72. Bryan Cave
73. Perkins Coie
74. Hunton & Williams
75. Patton Boggs
76. Arent Fox
77. Schulte Roth & Zabel
78. Howrey
79. Chadbourne & Parke
80. Crowell & Moring

Assorted observations about these firms, after the jump.

Earlier this week, we reported that Hunton & Williams wasn’t on the list of firms conducting on-campus interviews — or, to be technical, “on-grounds interviewing” (OGI) — at UVA Law School. That appears to have changed. From an email sent out yesterday afternoon by UVA Law’s office of career services:

[A] number of employers have signed up for OGI just this week. We have provided a list below. If you prepared your rankings previously, you may want to consider working these employers into your schedule. For example, contrary to what was reported on AbovetheLaw.com, Hunton & Williams is, in fact, interviewing during the OGI process and has been added to the system as of this afternoon.

The wording of the memo is misleading to the extent that it implies our original report was not correct at the time it was published. We have confirmed with UVA’s career services office that Hunton & Williams signed up for OGI after our original post went up.

Of course, that’s just a matter of chronology, not causation. But some readers think we might have played a role. From one law student tipster (representative of about half a dozen who expressed the same sentiment):

Apparently the ATL shaming was enough — Hunton and Williams now has a bid page for UVA OGI.

More discussion, including the full UVA career services memo, after the jump.

It’s hard to overstate the love between Hunton & Williams and UVA Law School. The firm sponsors a number of pro-bono fellowships at UVA Law, they come together to offer pro-bono services in the Charlottesville community, and there’s even a UVA Law building — or at least a sizable part of one — named after Hunton & Williams:

The firm and the law school go together like peas and carrots.

So you can imagine our surprise to learn that Hunton & Williams doesn’t seem to be on the UVA Law “on-grounds interviewing” (OGI) list.

Tipsters explain, after the jump.

I figure that every new person that gets laid off is just a new recruit on the student loan bailout bandwagon. Sure, the shrinks out there would call that my “coping mechanism,” but you can’t start a revolution when everybody is well-fed and content.

The newest foot soldiers come from Hunton & Williams. The firm has laid off 87 people today: 23 attorneys, 64 staff. Hunton & Williams managing partner, Wally Martinez, confirmed the news to Above the Law:

Today, we reduced approximately 23 associate and counsel positions and 64 staff positions in our U.S. offices. The reductions are spread among most of our teams and offices.

AmLaw Daily has this report from Mr. Martinez:

“We conducted our own internal stress test,” says Martinez, adding that the lack of associate attrition was also a catalyst. “We’re quite late getting to the layoff table, but the economic situation is a lot more prolonged and deeper than we had expected.”

Hunton indicated that these were economic layoffs. But tipsters report that individual laid off associates are being told something different:

My colleague … was not allowed to use the word layoff and the departure is being considered a resignation (in order to get a severance package).

I don’t know a lot of people who have involuntarily resigned. I suppose it’s possible, but it sounds like the colleague either got “laid off,” or needs to get themselves to an exorcist immediately.

Good luck to all the people laid off from Hunton today. Welcome to bandwagon, there is plenty of room left.

Read the full Hunton & Williams statement after the jump.

Richard Marinaccio was laid off from midsize firm Hodgson Russ LLP in Buffalo, New York, in January. While he was job searching, he may have spent his time constructively polishing his resume. And he may have spent some time playing board games. Both activities paid off.

In March, he both found a new job and casually surfed over to Hasbro’s website and took a quiz on his Monopoly strategy. He did well on the quiz, moving to the next round, which involved writing essays on his strategy. He did well again, and qualified for an online game-playing session with 80 other players. He scored at the top and was one of 28 people to participate in Monopoly’s national championships in Washington, D.C., last week.

He told us it was his first time participating in competitive Monopoly, though it’s always been his favorite game to play with his family. The family game-playing sessions prepared him well and Monopoly money is turning into real money for the 26-year-old attorney. He won the championship, taking home a purse equivalent to a Monopoly bank: $20,580. Marinaccio will also go on to represent the U.S. in the Monopoly world championship in Las Vegas in October.

And he’s not even a real estate attorney. He recently got a new job working as in-house counsel at a health care company.

He wasn’t the only attorney trying to force people into bankruptcy. Ellis Baggs of Hunton & Williams also qualified for the national competition, though he was eliminated before having the chance to square off with Marinaccio.

Advance to Go. Collect $20,580. Congratulations on the new job, the Monopoly skills, and a place in the ATL Lawyer of the Day annals, Mr. Marinaccio.

Earlier: (Laid-Off) Lawyer of the Day: Hudson River Plane Crash Passenger Frank Scudere

Buffalo Resident Crowned U.S. Monopoly National Champion [Business Wire]
Monopoly pays off big in competition [Washington Times]
Henricoan wins 1st round in national Monopoly championship [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

We love to point out when our commenters point us in the right direction. Over the weekend, somebody placed this comment in the recent Law Shucks post:

Hunton & Williams is planning big layoff in week ahead. The firm has been laying off PARTNERS in stealth moves during the past two months and a firm-wide meeting is scheduled for this week. Expect big staff cuts since those attorneys are no longer around.

In response, one of our tipsters did some checking:

Saw a comment under the law shucks story that Hunton was having a firm-wide meeting this week. Came in and checked today, [rooms have been reserved] by Human Resources from 11:30 to 1:00…. on Friday.

Hunton & Williams did not respond to our requests for comment. But there are a lot of issues that the firm might choose to address this coming Friday.

We’ll get into our other tipsters’ reports after the jump.

Where do lawyers turned reality TV contestants go? After their television careers, they take different paths.

Some return to their law firms. E.g., Charlie Herschel (Survivor / Weil Gotshal); Denise Gitsham (The Bachelor / K&L Gates); and Stacy Rotner (The Apprentice / Sidley). Some stay in the world of entertainment. E.g., David Otunga (engaged to Oscar-winning songstress Jennifer Hudson); Yul Kwon (Survivor winner, who then worked for CNN as a special correspondent).

And some have ups and downs. Remember Jeremy Anderson, the hottie from Hunton & Williams who competed for DeAnna Pappas’s hand on the latest season of The Bachelorette? Shortly after the show ended, his life wasn’t so glamorous. From a Texas tipster:

Jeremy, the runner-up from the Bachelorette, is working as a contract attorney upstairs at my firm [McKool Smith in Dallas]. Looks like Hunton Williams didn’t invite him back to the firm after the show ended. I heard about it because a bunch of the secretaries were going to the doc review floor to go check him out. I personally wasn’t about to make my way up there to stare at the guy.

Other indignities inflicted upon poor Jeremy (from a different reader, in mid-September):

I was at lunch today at Jason’s Deli in downtown Dallas with all of the other downtown workers. Well, all of a sudden, a familiar face walked in for a take-out order: Jeremy from the Bachelorette. My, how the mighty have fallen. From national TV to getting his own lunch.

And that wasn’t the end of it. Get this: Jeremy Anderson has been doing catalog modeling for JCPenney. And not just regular JC Penney, but the JC Penney outlet store.

(No joke — we have photographic proof. The photos show that Jeremy, whose magnificent shirtless torso was featured prominently on The Bachelorette, has gained weight since leaving the show.)

But our hero’s tale has a happy ending. Read more, and check out the pictures — including the J.C. Penney catalog images — after the jump.

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

We just finished watching The Bachelorette, which has featured a few lawyer-contestants this season. We’re happy to report that the attorneys are doing well. Out of nine bachelors still in the running for the hand of the lovely DeAnna Pappas, two are attorneys: Jeremy and Fred.

The frontrunner — between the two of them, and on the whole show right now — is 30-year-old Jeremy Anderson (SMU Law / Hunton & Williams). He’s rubbing the other guys the wrong way, but much of it seems to be player-hating. DeAnna is definitely falling for him, as are ATL readers. In our poll, 85 percent of you picked him over Eric Papachristos of Ropes & Gray, who got the ax last week.

We can see why. Last month, a reader commended Jeremy’s abs to us. We don’t know how this (male) reader was aware of Jeremy’s fine physique, but thanks to this week’s poolside cavorting, we were able to see for ourselves — and concur. Thumbnail at right; click to enlarge.

Fred, also a 30-year-old lawyer, is a more mysterious candidate. His last name is rumored to be Glick, although that hasn’t been confirmed. A reader tells us that he graduated from Chicago’s John Marshall Law School about five years ago. It’s not clear where he currently works. (If you know, please email us.)

We’re not big Fred fans. He’s on the doughy side, at least compared to the other contestants, and he came across like a tool during his attempt to ambush DeAnna during her one-on-time with Jeremy.

But Fred redeemed himself during the contestants’ pilgramage to the Oracle of Lesbos, Ellen DeGeneres. His explanation of DeAnna’s best quality was rambling (and highlighted that heavy Chicago accent), but Ellen seemed taken by it — combined with his performance in the “dance-off.” She gave him a rose.

So both Jeremy and Fred are still in the running. Which lawyer-lover do you prefer?

Earlier: The Lawyer and the Bachelorette

Bless us, Father, for we have sinned. Last night we watched the Bachelorette.

It was for journalistic reasons — really. We wanted to do an update to our prior post, about a lawyer competing for the hand of the Bachelorette, DeAnna Pappas.

Or make that “lawyers”? He’s not identified as a lawyer in his bio, which refers to him merely as a “senior analyst,” but Eric Papachristos, 31, apparently works in the Boston office of Ropes & Gray.

In addition, according to the Boston Herald (which confirms his Ropes & Gray connection), Eric co-owns Gypsy Bar, Victoria’s Diner, and The Breakfast Club. We aren’t familiar with these fine establishments, but if you are, feel free to chime in.

Sadly for him, Eric might want to keep his day job(s), since he was eliminated last night from the Bachelorette. He tried to bond with DeAnna over their shared Greek heritage, but she was having none of it. As he was sent home, Eric confessed that “it hurts to be rejected” and that he’s “never had to compete for someone’s affection before.”

Correction: Whoops, sorry about that. Although Eric works for Ropes, he is not a lawyer; he handles “Financial Planning and Analysis” for the firm. See his LinkedIn profile (via a commenter).

But another legal eagle, Jeremy Anderson, fared much better. He’s now viewed by his fellow contestants as the frontrunner, having racked up two roses. Here’s how he succeeded, from EW.com:

In the Dodger dugout, he told DeAnna that both of his parents are dead and that he’s had a hard time opening up because he’s trying to protect himself and his family. DeAnna, whose mother died of cancer when she was 12, now has someone who knows what she’s experienced. Jeremy’s position on the show, and maybe even in DeAnna’s heart, seems secure. Is he for real?

Real or not, he’s quite a hottie (with ample upper-body strength — he came in second fared well in the push-up contest). Furthermore, when Jeremy and DeAnna got their smooch on, he looked like a good kisser.

But Eric, who got the boot, isn’t bad-looking either. He got sent home, even though some less attractive gents (in our opinion) were allowed to stay on.

Who’s hotter, Eric or Jeremy? Compare their headshots at the top of this post, then take our poll below.

Update: As noted in the comments, there is a second lawyer on the show: Fred, a 30-year-old lawyer from Chicago. If you know more about his professional background — for example, where he went to law school or where he works — please enlighten us (in the comments or by email).

Earlier: SMU Law Grad to Vie for the Bachelorette’s Heart

Several loyal ATL readers (and Bachelorette watchers?) tipped us off to a lawyer being among the 25 bachelors competing on the ABC reality TV show this season.

The eligible bachelor is 30-year-old Texan Jeremy Anderson. ABC cites his profession as “real estate attorney.” He’s a December 2007 grad of SMU Dedman School of Law.

Speaking of layoffs at Hunton & Williams, our tipster says Anderson (who summered there in 2007) was let go from their Dallas office when he went on the show:

A first-year Dallas associate (who took the February 2008 bar) was placed on probation by Hunton Williams after asking for a leave of absence to do The Bachelorette. The firm is apparently waiting for the season to air before making a final decision, although they obviously plan to fire him. Who has the gall to ask for a leave of absence during their first year, especially to do a reality TV show? But assuming it’s a legitimate reason to request time off, is Hunton’s reaction reasonable and fair?

His name is Jeremy Anderson… There’s a rumor that he makes it to the final three. His bio was taken off Hunton’s website.

When we called Hunton about the layoff rumors in Charlotte, we also asked about Anderson. The only comment we got from their spokesperson was, “On a personal note, I love the show.”

We appreciate your sending this along, ATL readers. As one of you predicts, we will “enjoy covering Jeremy … and his abs.”

We wonder if law firms think of our Nationwide Layoff Watch feature like the Eye of Sauron, from Lord of the Rings. If so, “The Eye” has come to rest on Charlotte.

We hear rumors that Hunton & Williams is laying off associates down in CLT. From a tipster:

Hunton & Williams in Charlotte is conducting layoffs, including first-years [from the class of 2007]. The first-years may work until June 30, but then they must leave the office; however, they will have access to email and phone and pay until December 31.

Pay through December 31? Seems odd. It would amount to six months of severance, even though “market-rate” severance in recent law-firm layoffs hovers around three months. Is Hunton raising the bar?

In addition, we hear that two incoming H&W first-years in Charlotte had their offers rescinded. If true, it’s not surprising; other firms have previously rescinded offers to CLT associates. See, e.g., Sonnenschein.

Layoff talk centered on Hunton’s Charlotte has also surfaced at Infirmation / Greedy South, here and here. Back in January, there were rumors of firings in Atlanta (labor and employment).

We contacted Hunton & Williams. Their comment: “We don’t comment on rumors.” C’mon, really? What do you comment on, then?

If you have any more information on the H&W situation, please send us an e-mail (with Hunton & Williams in the subject line). Thanks.

Update: No layoffs — yet — according to managing partner Walfrido Martinez, who spoke to Am Law Daily. But he acknowledged that the firm is “redeploying” an unspecified number of asset securitization lawyers in Charlotte to other practice areas: “Option number one is always redeployment. If redeployment does not work, we will talk about transition arrangements.”

Yesterday we posted an open thread on Administrative Professionals’ Day. We hope your secretaries don’t read this blog — the comment thread on that one was a bit disturbing.

A tipster from Richmond sent us this update on what Hunton & Williams is doing to mark the “holiday”:

Thought you might appreciate this… It’s Staff Appreciation Week at Hunton & Williams, and this morning’s fun staff activity was a floor-by-floor breakfast and a cute version of The Price Is Right, where we had to guess the price of a bottle of detergent, a box of Polident, Rice-A-Roni, Centrum Vitamins and a can of Maxwell House coffee. We were told that there would be prizes for those who guessed closest to the actual retail price of the item. Not that anyone expects anything fabulous, but maybe a certificate for an hour off of work, a Starbucks gift card, etc.

Or maybe not?

An email just came out announcing the winners and their prizes… which were the items that they guessed the price of. So, approximately 60 H&W employees will be walking out to their cars with random groceries (and Polident) as a thank you for their hard work over the course of the year.

I know that ATL doesn’t focus too much on support staff, but this seems ridiculous enough to merit a mention. And if you need a lawyer-related angle, you can mention that the attorneys have to wear enormous ribbons all week that say THANK YOU TO OUR STAFF.

Winning a box of Polident? Rather than expressing appreciation, this seems mildly awful and embarrassing. And on the Price is Right, someone always wins a car.

H&W, where’s the car? To quote from Happy Gilmore, “the price is wrong, b*tch!”

It’s kind of cute that H&W tried, though. Is your firm doing anything special to celebrate this week?

Of all the characters in the U.S. Attorney firings drama, Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, was not our favorite. When he testified on Capitol Hill, he was earnest, sweaty, and decidedly non-fabulous — unlike Monica Goodling, who took the Senate Judiciary Committee by storm with a dazzling performance.

But even though his government service ended inauspiciously, Sampson has done just fine for himself. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Three Washington lawyers with Utah ties - including the chief of staff to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - are joining the food and drug practice at the firm Hunton & Williams.

D. Kyle Sampson, a Cedar City native, was Gonzales’ chief of staff at the Justice Department until he resigned amid a controversy over the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys, a move that spawned congressional investigations. Sampson, who compiled the list of attorneys who were fired, testified for hours before House and Senate committees in public hearings and private interviews.

Before joining the Justice Department he was an Associate Counsel to the President at the White House, was director of personnel for the Bush administration, and was an aide to Sen. Orrin Hatch on the Judiciary Committee. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Chicago University law school.

We wonder if the Mormon Mafia had a hand in his hiring. They are to the legal world what the Gay Mafia is to fashion!

Sampson, ex-aide to Gonzales, joins law firm [Salt Lake Tribune]

We broke the news of the Kilpatrick Stockton pay raise earlier this month. Today’s Fulton County Daily Report has an article about it here.

The Kilpatrick move is old news — it was actually announced before Labor Day — but Meredith Hobbs’s piece does contain a helpful summary of where the big Atlanta firms stand:

Alston & Bird sparked this round of Atlanta pay raises on Aug. 1 when it increased associate pay across the board, starting at $145,000 for first-years and rising to $190,000 for seventh years—the same scale that Hunton & Williams instituted in February during the year’s first round of associate salary increases. At that time, most of the city’s big firms increased first-year pay from $115,000 to $130,000. That followed a similar $15,000 pay increase at the beginning of 2006, also sparked by Alston.

Other firms that have announced they will raise local first-year pay to $145,000 in January include Troutman Sanders, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. Jones Day will raise first-year pay to $150,000 at that time.

Kilpatrick first-years join the $145K club [Fulton County Daily Report]

Earlier: Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Kilpatrick Stockton

None of these items is new. But as we were going through our overflowing inbox — if we owe you an email, we apologize for our delinquency (or blame our spam filter) — we came across some associate pay raises not previously mentioned here:

1. King & Spalding: We provided extensive coverage of their recent raise in Atlanta. But we forgot to mention that they also raised starting salaries in Houston, to $160,000 for first-year associates (effective August 1). Memo after the jump.

2. Hunton & Williams: This news surfaced in the comments, but we also received it by email: “Hunton in DC raised to $160k. Memo is floating around, though unfortunately I don’t have a copy.” (If you have the memo, please email us.)

Update: One commenter claims this news is incorrect. But as another commenter notes, the $160,000 starting salary appears in Hunton DC’s NALP form. We trust the NALP form.

3. Allen Matkins: We weren’t familiar with this 200+ lawyer, California-based firm. But since a tipster sent us their pay raise memo, we’re happy to post it (also after the jump).

As always, we rely upon you, our readers, to keep us updated on associate salary developments. If you have news and/or a memo that we haven’t previously posted, please email us. Thanks.

We’re big fans of Miami. We greatly enjoyed the visit we paid back in March, when we got to meet up with readers at an ATL Happy Hour.

So we’re more than happy to make Miami the next stop on our tour of the nation’s legal markets. Here’s a summary of the lay of the land, courtesy of the Daily Business Review:

Playing its hand in the South Florida associate pay stakes, Greenberg Traurig raised the starting base salaries of its rookie lawyers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale to $135,000 and their total compensation packages to more than $150,000….

The base salary of Greenberg’s first-year lawyers now will match that of White & Case, which in February announced that it had raised first-year salaries to $135,000 in Miami.

Holland & Knight, Hogan & Hartson and Akerman Senterfitt recently raised salaries for rookie lawyers to $130,000 in South Florida.

Hunton & Williams has raised its first-year salaries to $145,000 in Miami. Two New York-based firms, Weil Gotshal & Manges and Boies Schiller & Flexner, pay first-years $160,000 in their South Florida offices.

This article was published back in April. A quick spin through the NALP forms suggests this information is still correct.

But sometimes the NALP forms aren’t updated immediately. Has anything changed since April — or is anything about to change in the near future?

Please discuss associate compensation in the Miami legal market in the comments. Thanks.

Business of Law: Greenberg raises first-year salaries, urges pro bono work [Daily Business Review]

Related: Open threads focused on Denver, Hartford, Philadelphia, Seattle, New Jersey, Phoenix, Atlanta, Charlotte, Ohio.

The day that many of you have been waiting for has arrived. Today ATL goes to ATL: the fair city of Atlanta!

Based on NALP forms and prior news articles, it seems that starting salaries in the Big Peach generally range from $130,000 and $145,000 (similar to Philadelphia).

At $130K: Alston & Bird; Arnall Golden Gregory; King & Spalding; Kilpatrick Stockton; McKenna Long & Aldridge; Morris, Manning & Martin; Paul Hastings; Powell Goldstein; Smith Gambrell & Russell; Sutherland Asbill & Brennan; Troutman Sanders; Womble Carlyle.

At $135K: Jones Day

At $145K.: Dow Lohnes; Hunton & Williams; McGuireWoods; Schiff Hardin.

At $160K: Fish & Richardson (IP work).

Feel free to discuss associate compensation, or any other hot issues in Hotlanta, in the comments. Thanks.

New lawyers’ pay puts public sector to shame [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Alston & Bird Raises First-Year Pay Yet Again [Fulton County Daily Report]
Hunton raises first-year salaries to $145,000 [Fulton County Daily Report]

Related: Open threads focused on Denver, Hartford, Philadelphia, Seattle, New Jersey, Phoenix, Charlotte.

As noted by several commenters to this thread, Hunton & Williams — #43 on the AmLaw 100, and #70 on the Vault 100 — has taken itself off the LIST OF SHAME.

We’ve posted their memo — which they endearingly marked “CONFIDENTIAL” and “FOR INTERNAL DISTRIBUTION ONLY” (cute, guys) — after the jump.