Sadly, we’ll probably never learn whether former Clifford Chance partner Michael Bryceland was asked to “bend over” (a la Aaron Charney). Unlike Sullivan & Cromwell, CC settled the case quietly, for an undisclosed amount.
Of course, if you have any details, please feel free to send them to us by email (subject line: “Clifford Chance”). Thanks.
Revealed: CC pays out in sexual orientation claim [TheLawyer.com]
Magic Circle
No, not that Bjork. We’re talking about a different idiosyncratic Scandinavian, who also harbors musical aspirations.
By way of introduction:
This email was sent to the whole of Linklaters by one of their Swedish
assistantsassociates!Brilliant.
Oh those crazy Swedes…
Check out the email — which has made the rounds worldwide, is still being forwarded as we speak, and was going to wind up in your inbox eventually, so we feel no qualms about posting it — after the jump.
Continue reading “A Special Message from Bjork: Viva Linklaters!!!”
It appears that the salary wars have made their way to London. With London salaries rising into the neighborhood of £65,000, and with the current exchange rate over two $/£, the gap between New York and London salaries is narrowing considerably. This from the London Times Online:
City sources said newly-qualified lawyers at A&O would be offered salaries of £65,200 – above its magic circle and other UK rivals.
The latest pay rise pushes Allen & Overy into the territory of US law firms that typically offer between 20 and 40 per cent more than UK firms in an attempt to lure away skilled lawyers.
Chris Hickey, a legal recruiter at Robert Walters, predicted that several large US firms, whose London offices are enjoying a significant boom on the back of strong private equity and mergers and acquisitions markets, would also be forced to revise their salaries upwards.
With, as the article points out, U.S. firms typically paying 20-40% more than UK firms in London, the U.S. firms may soon be paying their associates in London more than their associates in New York. This will in turn likely force the NY salaries even higher. Could we soon hit $200,000 for first year associates?
Remember that root canal we had? It’s time for us to go in for a follow-up.
Hence this lunchtime open thread. Please post pay raise news in the comments. Since it’s Friday afternoon, we expect at least some news to break.
Before we leave, here are some items we’ve recently verified:
1. From a confirmed Linklaters source, we hear that “Linklaters has reinforced its commitment to be a top player in NYC market.”
We interpret this as: “We’re on the $160K scale. Yippee!”
2. From a confirmed source at Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal:
Our NY office is matching the New York pay raise, and our Chicago office is going to match Sidley’s 145K raise to Chicago 1st years. We expect that all Chicago firms will go to 145K, and some may feel compelled to go higher (Kirkland?) to compete with Skadden.
We only announced the 1st year rates. We have not set the upper level associate structure, which is somewhat more compressed than at certain other firms.
3. Finally, Brown Rudnick has matched. Their memo appears after the jump.
We’ll review your comments, and resume salary coverage, when we get back. Thanks.
Earlier: Previous announcements of law firm associate salary increases (scroll down through “Skaddenfreude” archives)
- Allen & Overy, Biglaw, Clifford Chance, Holland & Knight, Latham & Watkins, Magic Circle, Milbank Tweed, Musical Chairs, O'Melveny & Myers, S.D.N.Y., Skadden Arps, U.S. Attorneys Offices, Willkie Farr
Musical Chairs: 10.31.06
By David LatTons of moves to report today — and these are just the highlights:
New Partners:
* Latham & Watkins — which, as discussed yesterday, is very popular with Supreme Court clerks — has elected 26 new partners, in offices around the country. That’s enough lawyers to start a whole new law firm.
You can check out their names here. If you graduated from law school around 1998, you probably know some of them.
“Magic Circle” Hiring Spree:
The top British law firms — aka the “Magic Circle” firms — continue to cast spells over U.S. practitioners, who have been flocking to their American offices in droves.
* Louis Kimmelman, former co-chair of O’Melveny & Myers’s international arbitration practice, is heading to Allen & Overy’s rapidly growing New York office. Kimmelman regularly appears before the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, the American Arbitration Association, and other tribunals.
* Finance lawyers Zarrar Sehgal and Anthony Lopez III, to Clifford Chance (NY), from Milbank Tweed and Cahill Gordon, respectively.
Lateral Moves:
* Corporate and securities lawyer Michael Student, to Brown Rudnick, from Holland & Knight.
* Tax lawyer James Tander, corporate lawyer Patrick de Carbuccia, and real estate lawyer Michael Pollack, to Reed Smith (NY). They come from, respectively, Skadden Arps, Willkie Farr, and Withers Bergman of (New Haven, CT).
Government to Private Sector:
* Sharon McCarthy, a former deputy chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District, to litigation and tax boutique Kostelanetz & Fink, as a partner.
Internal Promotions:
* Paul Tvetenstrand, a partner in the structured finance practice group, has been elected chairman and managing partner of Thacher Proffitt & Wood.
Latham & Watkins Elects 26 New Partners [Latham & Watkins]
NY Partners Switching Firms, NY Lawyers On the Move [NYLawyer.com]
More NY Partners Switching Firms [NYLawyer.com]
Firm Promotes 26 to Partnership [NYLawyer.com]
NY Practice Leader Switches Firms [NYLawyer.com]
Not sure how we feel about this development:
For years, outsourcing has been a dirty word inside the world of white-shoe law firms…. A number of large law firms, though, are starting to tiptoe onto far-flung shores.
The latest is Clifford Chance, one of the largest law firms in the world with 29 offices in 20 countries, which will announce plans today to consolidate and move big chunks of its administrative functions like accounting and technological support to an operation in Delhi, India, by next spring.
Ah yes, Clifford Chance — already renowned for its spectacular associate morale.
We’re sure CC associates will love it when their computer freezes up at 2 a.m. the night before a closing, they call the dubiously-named “Help Desk,” and they spend 45 minutes trying to explain the problem to an Indian woman who insists that yes, she really IS named “Rhonda.”
On the other hand, outsourcing all boring tasks could be good for law firm associates over the long term. Can Bangladeshis be trained to conduct due diligence?
Law Firms Are Starting to Adopt Outsourcing [New York Times via How Appealing]
Outsourcing: Everybody’s Doing It, Even Law Firms [WSJ Law Blog]
Clifford Chance LLP: Associates’ Concerns [Internal Memos]
- Biglaw, Bingham McCutchen, Jenner & Block, King & Spalding, Magic Circle, Money, Musical Chairs, Partner Profits, S.D.N.Y., Sullivan & Cromwell, U.S. Attorneys Offices
Musical Chairs: 10.26.06
By David LatNew Partners:
* Sullivan & Cromwell: Jeffrey Chapman, Michael Escue, Hydee Feldstein, Stacey Friedman, Brian Hamilton, Julia Jordan, Eric Kadel, Jr. and Juan Rodriguez.
The partnership promotions will be effective January 1, 2007. Congratulations, kids!
Like many other top New York firms, Sullivan still has a single-tier partnership structure. All partners are equity partners.
And all S&C partners are doing very well for themselves. In 2005, the firm enjoyed average profits-per-partner of $2.4 million. See here (subscription required).
Lateral Moves:
* Private equity lawyer Stephen Culhane, to Linklaters (10 points — Magic Circle!!!), from King & Spalding.
Government to Private Sector:
* Harry Sandick, to Jenner & Block, from the venerable S.D.N.Y. U.S. Attorney’s Office (where he served as deputy chief appellate attorney and, before that, as acting chief of the violent crimes unit).
* Hawyood Haywood Gilliam, to Bingham McCutchen, from the well-regarded San Francisco U.S. Attorney’s Office (N.D. Cal.).
[Ed. note: See this comment, and this juicy article. It appears that the office has slipped in the past few years.]
Haywood Gilliam headed the securities fraud section of the U.S.A.O. and worked on various stock options backdating cases. His move to private practice is timely, given the explosion of backdating scandals in Silicon Valley. But Gilliam will presumably be conflicted out of a bunch of cases that he worked on while at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
UK Firm Adds Another NY Partner [NYLawyer.com]
Former Federal Prosecutor Joins Firm in NY [NYLawyer.com]
In Timely Hire, Firm Grabs Backdating Prosecutor [NYLawyer.com]
- Biglaw, Holland & Knight, Jones Day, Latham & Watkins, Linklaters, Magic Circle, Musical Chairs, White & Case
Musical Chairs: 10.24.06
By David LatLateral 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]
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