Many lawyers are charitable creatures. Because lawyers are good people. For those working in Biglaw, all that disposable income -- and the corresponding need for tax deductions -- can make giving to good causes a little easier.

We receive many requests from benefit organizers for promotion on Above The Law. We consider ourselves good charitable creatures here at ATL, but we have a responsibility to our readers to stick to important news items, like raunchy internet chats, embarrassing summer associate stories, top ten music lists, and irreverent commentary on plus-size judges.

But we've created a part of the site, the ATL Community, where the bleeding hearts among you can post information about charitable events. There are a few events there now, including Just Art 08!, to be held in NYC on June 25. If you have a charitable event you'd like to promote, please feel free to plug it in the Community section.

If you have any charity left in you after making donations to your favorite law school, check out the ATL Community site for legally-related giving opportunities. Okay, that's all the goodness we have in us for today. Time to get back to the news.

P.S. Speaking of charitable benefits, congratulations to Hope for Vision, previously mentioned here and here, on its recent successful event. Props to Jones Day, which presented the organization with a $100,000 check to kick off its 20/20 Vision Campaign.

Washingtonian magazine has a fun little piece on lawyers profiting from congressmen going after one another.

If you're interested in the intersection of law and politics, and we know many of you are, you'll enjoy this story. Here's how it starts:

Of all the angles played by Washington law firms, few can bring as much joy as having clients who aren’t playing with their own money.

Take the battle between two congressmen, John Boehner of Ohio and Jim McDermott of Washington: In a near-decadelong fight over McDermott’s leak of the contents of privileged and illegally taped conversations involving Boehner, the two ran up legal bills of about $1.6 million.

So who ended up covering that seven-figure legal bill? Find out, after the jump.

Last week we put up a post about associate compensation issues at Jones Day. It generated a torrent of comments. As always, some were negative, some positive.

A few readers were upset by the negative comments and came to their firm's defense. Here's what one wrote:

I am a third year lawyer at Jones Day. I enjoy my job and am paid well (and I mean darn well) above market. I hesitate to respond to such mudslinging by persons who are either disgruntled or misinformed, but as a current happy third year lawyer at Jones Day, I felt the need to set the record straight.

People who are unhappy with their compensation at Jones Day are in fact underperformers. Believe me, if I were in charge, I would fire those people rather than giving them a $160,000 "hint" that they aren't Jones Day material and should consider a career change. Because anyone who thinks that paying a third year lawyer the published salary of a first year lawyer is not a "message" about work quality is delusional. In no other profession do competent, mature people complain about being compensated based on their performance (or lack thereof).

To reiterate: I did not clerk. I have never billed more than 2100 hours. I have received bonuses despite billing slightly under 2000 hours. I have had many fantastic substantive opportunities (read: not two years of document review). I enjoy my job and colleagues. I am paid based on the quality (again, not quantity) of my work, which turns out to be more than most 4th year lawyers billing 2000-2100 hours at big firms in NY.

And the beauty of our confidential system is that other greedy jealous underperforming associates aren't blogging about my pay stub. Instead, those "lawyers" have gotten the Jones Day "hint," and are now spending their time at a new employer - not representing clients, but blogging about their ex-employer who figured out that they were worthless.

Ouch. That was way harsh, Tai.

But it's a fair point. Why shouldn't a firm pay associates what it thinks they're worth on an individual basis, and if the associates don't like it, they can leave? This is effectively what investment banks do with their personnel.

Additional commentary about JD, plus a photo of some of their paralegals at play, after the jump.

A number of you have requested, in comments and via email, a post to talk about compensation issues at Jones Day. So here you go.

We'll kick off the discussion with this message we received:

I have recently noticed a number of postings relating to Jones Day D.C.'s lack of a bonus and non-competitive / non-transparent salary scale. For what it's worth, a friend of mine left Jones Day as a third year associate. Compensation as a third year: $175k. My friend knew of others that were in the third year class making $175k; however, my friend knew of a few other associates making $170k, and even one third year associate that was making $160k. This was AFTER Jones Day D.C. made the move to $160k.

Talk about compression, $5k between a first year and third year. Maybe some of these Jones Day posters do have something to gripe about?

We don't really know, due to Jones Day's overall lack of transparency when it comes to associate compensation (beyond the first year). But let's try and find out what the deal is. If you have associate compensation information about Jones Day, including but not limited to the Washington D.C. office, please share what you know in the comments, or email us. Thanks.

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

The devoted readership of ATL down in ATL will appreciate this update. From an article by Meredith Hobbs in yesterday's Fulton County Daily Report:

More law firms have capitulated in Atlanta's second round of pay raises this year.

Jones Day will raise starting pay to $150,000, and Sutherland Asbill & Brennan and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker will go to $145,000 -- an increase of $15,000 at each firm.

The raises are effective Jan. 1, 2008, when pay raises go into effect at several other Atlanta firms, including Alston & Bird, King & Spalding and Troutman Sanders.

The rest of the article, which contains discussion of salaries for more senior associates (compression!!! aargh!!!), is available here.

Three Law Firms Pump Up Pay for First-Years [Fulton County Daily Report]

Multiple readers sent us this article, from Bloomberg News:

Bruce Masterson, chief operating officer of Socrates Media LLC, asked his outside counsel to customize a residential lease for all 50 U.S. states in 2003. The firm's estimate: about $400,000. He rejected that price tag and hired QuisLex, in Hyderabad, India, which did it for $45,000.

``It was good quality,'' said Masterson, whose Chicago-based company publishes legal forms on the Internet. ``We've been working together ever since.''

Clients are pushing law firms like Jones Day and Kirkland & Ellis to send basic legal tasks to India, where lawyers tag documents and investigate takeover targets for as little as $20 an hour. The firms are reacting to a trend that will move about 50,000 U.S. legal jobs overseas by 2015, according to Boston- based Forrester Research Inc.

Biglaw partners may soon be telling associates: "If you don't think $160,000 is enough to review documents for 2200 hours a year, fine. We'll just ship your job off to India, where 'Biff' and 'Jenny' will be happy to be document drones -- for under $9,000 a year. And if I have a problem with my laptop, they can help me with that too!"

Jones Day, Kirkland Send Work to India to Cut Costs [Bloomberg News]

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.

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.)

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]

Lateral Moves:

Both of today's moves are in the field of intellectual property law:

* Patent litigator Sandra Bresnick, to Sidley Austin, from Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

* IP transactional lawyer Warren Nachlis, to Jones Day (NY), from Shearman & Sterling.

(Interesting to leave so soon -- Nachlis made partner at Shearman only just last year.)

Two NY IP Partners Switch Firms [NYLawyer.com]

Lateral Moves:

* Four litigation partners, and possibly a dozen associates, are leaving White & Case to join the New York office of Linklaters -- a "Magic Circle" firm (insert squeal of delight here). The group's practice focuses on white-collar criminal, antitrust, and other regulatory matters.

The four partners are Lawrence Byrne, a former assistant U.S. attorney (S.D.N.Y.) and deputy chief of the DOJ's organized crime section; Joseph Armao, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan; Lance Croffoot-Suede, who was hired by Linklaters based solely on his fabulous, British-sounding name; and Paul Alfieri, who was not.

* Corporate lawyer Michael Student and bankruptcy lawyer Neil Pigott, to Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels, from Holland & Knight and Mandel Katz, respectively.

* Private equity lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, to Jones Day, from Latham & Watkins.

From the New York Law Journal: "Mr. Kennedy is not related to the former U.S. attorney general and New York senator whose son is a well-known environmental lawyer and political activist."

RFK. Jeez, poor guy. And it doesn't even help him get restaurant reservations.

NY Firm Loses Four Partners, and 12 Associates May Follow [NYLawyer.com]
NY Partners Switching Firms [NYLawyer.com]
Firm Adds NY Private Equity Partner [NYLawyer.com]