Okay, folks, you know what to do. Here are the next five law firms up for discussion (in Vault 100 order, with prestige scores in parentheses):
21. Arnold & Porter LLP (7.012)
22. Jones Day (6.932)
23. Morrison & Foerster LLP (6.898)
24. Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy (6.752)
25. Clifford Chance LLP (6.747)
The virgin territory of the comments is yearning for your touch.
The Vault Top 100 Law Firms [Vault]
Earlier: Vault 1-5; Vault 6-10; Vault 11-15; Vault 16-20
A source at Jones Day has confirmed for us the rumor that the firm’s Atlanta office has raised starting salaries to $150,000. Here’s more detail:
First years are at $150,000, and senior classes are to be paid commensurate with Jones Day’s goals to pay at the top of each market in which it operates. There is also a bonus available starting in 2008, which is allegedly not to be based on hours, but is performance based.
I think it’s a nice move in this market. It doesn’t necessarily address compression, but I still think I am and will be paid pretty well for a great quality of life, relatively speaking. I’ve got no complaints.
But we’re sure that other Atlanta associates have complaints. You can voice them in the comments.
Jones Day to $150k + new merit bonus plan [Greedy South / Infirmation]
Usually when we highlight individual lawyers or judges in these pages, it’s to poke (good-natured) fun at them. But it’s Friday afternoon, so let’s send you into the weekend on a warm and fuzzy note.
From a reader who was on the train today:
A man in his mid- to late-twenties, wearing a yellow shirt and carrying a Jones Day bag, helped carry an elderly gentleman onto the train and into his seat. Around an hour into the train ride, the old man’s wife tried to wake him up, but could not.
The Jones Day man lifted the gentleman out of his seat, placed him in the aisle, and began CPR. The train conductor’s took over, the train was put onto a side track, and EMS was called.
Unfortunately, all efforts to resuscitate the man were unsuccessful. We were later transferred to another train. On this second train, which was now overcrowded, the same man later gave up his seat when an older passenger got on.
Not all that humorous, but I thought this chivalry by a “Big Bad Biglaw Lawyer” might merit your attention.
Indeed it does. We thank our reader for this interesting story — and commend the Jones Day fellow (associate? paralegal?) for his kindness and human decency.
(And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming. Whom should we make fun of next?)
Not much associate pay raise news right now. We have just two more announcements, neither of them super-exciting, both from firms with “Day” in their names:
1. Jones Day: The firm’s Dallas and Houston offices now pay starting salaries of $160,000. We don’t have a memo, but a tipster directed our attention to these pages on the firm website (as well as this compensation overview).
2. Day Pitney: For those of you who follow the Connecticut market, Day Pitney will be raising first-year associate salaries to $120,000 — but not until January 1, 2008. (At that time, starting salaries in the firm’s Boston and New York offices will go up to $150,000.)
The Day Pitney memo appears after the jump.
Continue reading “Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Happy Days Are Here Again”
This is not huge news; but since some of you were asking after it in the comments, here you go.
From a helpful tipster:
Here’s confirmation of the JD-Dallas raise. Sorry it didn’t come sooner. As you can see, JD-Dallas went to $150K, which interestingly enough is now ahead of JD-Chicago.
http://www.jonesday.com/careers/usa/students/summer/compensation/
The link is actually helpful in more ways than one, since it includes base salary information for entering associates in numerous Jones Day offices. The firm is admirably transparent when it comes to associate compensation.
Please feel free to use this post as the morning open thread for salary discussions.
Jones Day – Careers – Compensation [Jones Day]
Today was a little more interesting than yesterday. A few announcements were made — or were finally brought to our attention and confirmed, if they were made previously.
After the jump, more information about DLA Piper, Katten Muchin Rosenman, King & Spalding, and Jones Day (Atlanta).
(And, of course, your comments.)
Continue reading “Skaddenfreude: A Few Announcements, End of Day Open Thread”
Sorry, we don’t have any new memos or emails to share with you. We can’t post what we haven’t been emailed.
We’re not the only ones on the money beat. The MSM continues to follow increasing base salaries for law firm associates quite closely.
Here’s a linkwrap of four articles, published yesterday or today, concerning associate pay raises and/or partner profits:
1. Biggest Chicago firms boosting 1st-year pay [Chicago Tribune]
2. Alston & Bird Raises Pay to $130,000 [Fulton County Daily Report]
3. Pay: It’s All Relative: Starting pay at top firms falls farther behind partners’. [National Law Journal]
4. Keeping Up With the Joneses [The Recorder (subscription)]
As always, your comments are welcomed, after the jump.
Oops, we left out new partner news from the MC post that we just published. And since half of you probably just made partner at Jones Day, that’s not a good thing.
Here’s the news:
* Jones Day: Forty-five (45!!!) new partners. Names here.
* Kaye Scholer: Four new partners. Names here.
* Stroock & Stroock & Lavan: Three new partners. Names here.
* Vinson & Elkins: Fourteen new partners. Names here.
NY Associates Making Partner, Counsel [NYLawyer.com]
Jones Day Names 45 New Partners [Jones Day]
Kaye Scholer Announces New Partners and Counsel [Kaye Scholer]
Stroock Names New Partners and Special Counsel [Stroock & Stroock & Lavan]
Vinson & Elkins Names 14 New Partners [Vinson & Elkins]
Personnel changes are everywhere today — and not just on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon. Some notable moves within the legal profession:
Lateral Moves:
* Private equity and M&A lawyer Dennis Barsky, to Jones Day, from Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
* Corporate lawyer Jonathan Stapleton and investment-funds lawyer Margaret Paradis, to Baker & McKenzie (NY), from Arnold & Porter and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, respectively.
* Insurance and financial services lawyer Chiu-Ti Jansen, to Sidley Austin, from LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae.
Government to Private Sector:
* Marc Agnifilo, former head of the violent and organized crime unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey, is joining Brafman and Associates. Yes, that Brafman — renowned criminal defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman, Diddy-defending attorney to the stars.
(Disclosure: Marc Agnifilo is a former colleague of ours, as well as a tremendously experienced and exceptionally talented lawyer. He has a fantastic sense of humor. And he’s the nephew of celebrated writer Don DeLillo.)
Firm Adds Two NY Corporate Partners [NYLawyer.com]
NY Private Equity Partner Switches Firms [NYLawyer.com]
NY Lawyers On the Move [NYLawyer.com]
Baker & McKenzie LLP Announces Ambitious New Strategy and Leadership Team in New York [Baker & McKenzie]
Today’s big move is from the government to the private sector:
* Renowned Enron prosecutor Sean Berkowitz, to the Chicago office of Latham & Watkins. The much-anticipated move took place after the young legal superstar was wooed by many other top firms. Berkowitz will be an equity partner at Latham, where profits per partner clock in at $1.6 million — at least ten times what he earned as an AUSA.
(Berkowitz, you may recall, was dating financial reporter Bethany McLean, who covered the Enron trial for Fortune magazine. Anyone know whether they are still an item — and if so, how serious? Partner profits are great for buying engagement rings.)
The boom in white-collar criminal prosecutions has created lots of job opportunities for government lawyers. Another notable move: former SEC lawyer David Mittelman, headed for the San Francisco office of Reed Smith.
New Partners:
* Cleary Gottlieb, aka Clearly Goatlips — we hadn’t heard that one before, it’s a good one — names eight new partners and six new counsel. No word on whether a swimming test was required.
Here’s the firm’s press release. See if you know any of these soon-to-be millionaires.
Lateral Moves:
* Patent prosecutrix Margaret Brivanlou, to King & Spalding (NY), from Jones Day. (She joined Jones Day when it gobbled up much of what had been IP boutique Pennie & Edmonds.)
* Litigator Daniel Murdock, to Fulbright & Jaworski (NY), from Winston & Strawn (where he formerly chaired the New York litigation practice).
New Firm:
* Charles Ross, former head of the white-collar practice at Herrick Feinstein, has left to start his own firm. Charles A. Ross & Associates will handle criminal defense and some civil cases. Ross is also a former law partner of the Diddy-defending Benjmain Brafman, go-to guy for celebrities with legal problems.
Cleary Gottlieb Announces 14 New Partners and Counsel Worldwide [Cleary Gottlieb]
Enron Prosecutor Berkowitz Joins Latham & Watkins [WSJ Law Blog]
Firm Nabs SEC Attorney [NYLawyer.com]
Watch to find out what some of our subscribers received in their May box!
The proper hair styling product might just be the only thing standing between you and your dream job. And the best way to find what works for you is to try the best stuff on the market. Join Birchbox Man for $20 a month and you’ll get customized shipments of the best grooming and lifestyle gear on the market every month—everything from haircare and shaving supplies to style accessories and tech gadgets.
As the leading discovery commerce platform, Birchbox is redefining the retail process by offering consumers a unique and personalized way to discover, learn about, and shop the best grooming and lifestyle products out there. It’s a full 360-degree process: try, learn, buy. Once you sign up and fill out your profile, head over to Birchbox Man’s online magazine to find article and video tutorials on how to get the most out your monthly box products. Pick up full-size versions of anything you like in the Birchbox Shop and earn points for every purchase.
We currently have a number of active openings for associate roles at US and UK firms in HK / China, Singapore and two new in-house openings. As always, please feel free to reach out to us at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com in order to get details of current openings in Asia, as well as to discuss the Asia markets in general and what we expect for openings later this year. Our Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney will be in Beijing the week of March 25 and Evan Jowers will be in Hong Kong the week of April 1, if you would like to meet them in person.
The US associate openings we have in law firms are in the usual areas of M&A, cap markets, FCPA / white collar litigation, finance, and project finance. The most urgent of our top tier (top 15 US or magic circle) law firm openings in Asia (among many other firm openings that we have in Asia) are as follows:
• 2nd to 5th year mandarin fluent M&A associates needed in Beijing and Hong Kong at several firms;
• Korean fluent 2nd to 4th year cap markets associate needed in Hong Kong;
• 2nd to 5th year Japanese fluent M&A associates needed in Tokyo;
• 4th to 6th year mandarin fluent cap markets associate needed in Hong Kong;
• 2nd to 4th year M&A / cap markets mix associate needed in Singapore.
Also, we have the two below in-house openings:
Keep reading »
The last time I flapped my wings your way, I tried to make at least enough noise about your mobile phone to make you more than a little bit uncomfortable. I hope I did. If enough of us become anxious enough about the known and unknown unknowns and knowns in our mobile phones, then we can start making wise decisions about how to manage that information and its resultant investigations.
Today, I’d like to put a finer point on the last installment’s topic by asking a question that seemed to catch most attendees off-guard at a conference panel that I moderated last week: is there discoverable personal information in a mobile app? Our panelists’ answer was a uniform “yes” with one stating that, if he had to choose only one type of data that he could discover from a mobile phone, he’d choose app data. Why? Because there’s simply so much of it and because almost all of it is objective – not just user-created like an email – but machine-tracked like GPS, usage duration, log in and log out times, browsed web addresses, browsed actual addresses. Also, most of us seem to have the idea that data doesn’t actually “stick” to our mobile devices the way it “sticks” to our hard drives. Maybe there’s a disconnect based on the fact that our phones are mobile so we assume the data is mobile to?
Keep reading »
The traditional job application and interview process can be impersonal, and applicants often struggle to present themselves as more than just the sum of their GPAs, alma maters, and previous work history. ATL has partnered with ViewYou to help job seekers overcome this challenge. ViewYou NOW Profiles offer a unique way for job seekers to make a personal, memorable connection with prospective employers: introduction videos. These videos allow job candidates to display their personalities, interpersonal skills, and professional interests, creating an eDossier to brand themselves to potential employers all over the world. Check it out today!
