Secretaries / Administrative Assistants

O’Melveny Freezes Staff Salaries to July 2010

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omelveny logo.JPGAt what point does a salary freeze start to feel like a salary cut? Staff at O’Melveny & Myers are about to find out. O’Melveny just announced a new salary ice-age for its staff. Above the Law obtained this internal memo sent to O’Melveny staffers:

We are committed to taking proactive steps to maintain our financial strength in the face of unprecedented economic times. As part of this effort, we continue to look at how we can prudently and efficiently manage our costs and have therefore decided that there will be no salary increases this year and the performance evaluation cycle will be extended from 12 months to 24 months. Your performance evaluation will now cover the period between July 2008 – July 2010. We will consider salary increases at the end of the new performance review period in July 2010.

O’Melveny has already been through layoffs. In March, 200 people were let go, including 110 staffers. So on the one hand, a salary cut is a lot better than being out on the street.
On the other hand, staffers don’t make much to begin with, and nobody wants a static salary. O’Melveny staff better start rooting for the rest of the American economy to continue its deflationary trend.
O’Melveny confirmed that the freeze only applies to staff.
Will we see more ice-age freezes this summer? Stay tuned.
Check out the full firm statement after the jump.
Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: O’Melveny Fires 90 Lawyers, 110 Staff

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Bingham McCutchen’s ‘Stepford Secretary’ Has Left The Building

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Bingham logo.jpgA couple of days ago, we brought you the story of a Bingham McCutchen secretary who believed that her firm had great “CHARACTER,” despite these tough economic times. She closed her remarks with this:

So, although I am grateful for my job and middle class life, I realize that living daily in fear and conforming to play a Stepford role will not ensure either. Besides, I value and respect too many of the people at Bingham. I’ll stick with good old CHARACTER.

As we — and many others — anticipated, that secretary is no longer employed at Bingham.
The firm would not comment about its internal decision, but multiple sources independently tell us that she has been let go. As we understand it, she was fired on Wednesday.
One of our commenters had this insightful response to the Stepford Secretary’s situation:

I think this and eekboy’s “rant” is a reflection of our times. Everyone thinks their opinion is important and should be heard. While I don’t doubt this secretary has a beef on her mind, I believe she and eekboy have no concept of boundaries. This is part of the facebook/twitter/blog phenomenon where everyone thinks they can say WHATEVER they want, WHENEVER they want, WHEREVER they want.
She should’ve sent that to close friends and peer colleagues. Sending it to the entire firm is just selfish and egotistical.

But it could be that the secretary had more to say.
Details after the jump.

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Bingham McCutchen Staffer Doesn’t Want to be a ‘Stepford’ Secretary

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Bingham logo.jpgDon’t call it a memo, call it a mission statement.
This afternoon, just before lunch, a secretary in the New York office of Bingham McCutchen decided to express her feelings about the recession to her law firm colleagues. All of them. All Bingham partners, counsel, associates, and staff, in every office, received this message to ponder over lunch:

Character
In recent times we read and talk primarily of those who have lost their jobs. Those of us that remain employed, specifically for this content, in the field of “Corporate America”, are clinging so tightly to the stability and familiarity of ones’ employment that we are losing, in my opinion, an already underrated quality, CHARACTER (for some that may be assuming that they had any in the first place, and likely they are clueless to who they are).
Many years have passed now since I joined the legal profession. I can remember meeting a first year associate, and sinking into my chair when I realized I was older than my assignment. I have been truly fortunate during my many years. I have worked with ground-breaking woman and bright young associates who eventually became partner. I have experienced co-workers get married, have babies, even cried with them over loss of dear friends (R.I.P. Howie, Mike and sadly several others).
As I look around lately, I see nail biting and unshowered attorneys (more driven than ever), which is another great concern – the lack of recognition for the importance of Quality of Life. But that’s another story). In conversation with colleagues I hear in whispers “well, we have our jobs”. Some of these people, now unrecognizable to me, I have known for countless years. It is as if their zest is gone, overshadowed by their fears, desperate to justify their worth to the company. These were some of the brightest and most innovative people I have ever professionally known.

Good. Good. Keep typing. I am unarmed. Keep writing this email and take the Quinn Emanuel associate’s place by my side.
Crack open a beer and watch the train wreck continue after the jump.

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Hogan & Hartson Offers Buyout of 250-300 Staff

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Hogan Hartson logo.jpgMultiple sources told ATL on Friday that Hogan & Hartson would offer a buyout to 250-300 of its support staff. The firm has now had an opportunity to inform all of the personnel.

We spoke with Hogan & Hartson Chairman J. Warren Gorrell Jr. on Friday. He explained that the buyout is part of Hogan’s attempt to find solutions to the financial crisis in both a creative and sensitive manner.

Gorrell also explained the specifics of the offer. Staffers with more than five years of experience will be offered four weeks pay plus one week for every year they’ve been with the firm. For some senior people, that could end up at 20 or 30 weeks, which is considerably more than what other firms are offering displaced staff members as part of a severance package.

Tipsters weigh in after the jump.

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Open Thread: Standard of Living During the Global Economic Crisis

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wall street bull backside.jpgCutbacks are hitting every level of Biglaw. Firms have gotten very creative in their attempts to wither cut or control costs. Because of all these rollbacks, weathering the global economic crisis is more challenging than simply holding on to your job — though that is hard enough.

How is the economic crisis affecting people day-to-day? We received an interesting story from a Biglaw staffer that really brings home the daily struggle to make it through this recession:

Last year Dechert sent out that retroactive memo about taking a certain percentage from the attorneys’ bonuses if they didn’t enter their time on time. Well, now they are saying that they are going to do it to the paralegals as well, BUT since most paralegals don’t get bonuses, they are threatening to take five percent from our vacation pay if we don’t qualify for a bonus and if we are late entering our time. I only make about $120 a day (in New York City!), so if the partners, who are making millions, want to take $6.00 from a struggling paralegal, that is just disgusting. …

Do any other firms treat their staff [like this]?

Dechert aside (and for the record, we don’t know if this story is an accurate reflection of Dechert’s policies on this specific issue), what other kinds of everyday, “standard of living” sacrifices are people having to make in these difficult times? Contrary to the popular belief, bonuses and pay raises don’t really go into the “coke and prostitutes” fund.

Are associates reorganizing their debt repayment plans? Are paralegals putting off plans to go back to school, or accelerating those plans? Beyond the dollars and statistics, there is a very real cost to all of the bad economic news.

How is it going out there?

Earlier: Biglaw: Welcome to the Credit Crunch

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Secretaries Being Asked to Cut Costs: Could it Save Jobs?

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Greenberg logo.JPGGreenberg Traurig is trying to tighten up their administrative ship. The kind of normal, everyday instances of over clocking that many administrative assistants engage in are being directly addressed by management. Secretaries and administrative assistants received the following memo earlier this week.

The per attorney cost for overtime in the Chicago office is higher than the firm average and significantly higher than some offices. You may think that working an extra 15 -30 minutes per week is not significant. It is. We have to reduce our number and we are instituting the following guidelines. The guidelines are simply stated and easy to achieve. If you have questions, we are happy to discuss them with you.

In normal times, the guidelines (printed in full after the jump) would seem a bit petty. Here’s one example:

Take your full lunch hour and clock out BEFORE you go to pick up or purchase your lunch.

Yes, everybody knows that people should do that, but normally it wouldn’t be such a huge deal that you have to issue an entire memo about it. At least you shouldn’t have to use the excessively formal “All-Caps” method of communication.

But in these times of significant economic stress, 15-30 minutes of pay a day could literally save jobs. Everybody really should be looking for ways they can become more cost efficient.

Read the full firm memo after the jump.

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Dechert Ices 72 Staff Positions

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Dechert logo.JPGWe started getting reports this morning that Dechert let go a number of secretaries and legal assistants. But the numbers from our tipsters were low, very low. The Legal Intelligencer just reported that Dechert has in fact laid off an amazing 72 staffers.

A firm spokeswoman confirmed that Dechert has laid off 72 administrative staff across its U.S. offices. She wouldn’t get into details about which positions or how many in each office, but said the cuts were basically proportionate across the firm’s 11 U.S. offices.

The 72 administrative positions account for about 12.6 percent of the firms 570 U.S. staff members. Dechert has around 1,045 attorneys firmwide and the spokeswoman said there are no plans to cut any more staff or any attorneys based on what they know at this time.

An attorney tipster moves straight to the problem associates at Dechert are all worried about:

[I]t’s not like we can have less secretaries unless there are less lawyers…

Dechert has come to the layoff buffet early and often. In October, there was a lot of contention about how many attorneys Dechert has been stealthily getting rid of. At least the staff layoffs are being properly announced.

But then again, Dechert staff also got to feel a little bit of that “Dechert style” on their way out the door. More after the jump.

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Further Thoughts: The Time for Giving (to your Secretary/Administrative Staff)

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Secretary.jpgLast week, we posted an open thread to discuss end-of-the-year gift giving to your secretary and/or paralegal. We’ve waded through the many comments to fish out some points of consensus.

  • A few secretaries appeared on the thread to urge associates to give cash or an AmEx/Visa gift card equivalent, and not a gift card to a specific restaurant, bookstore or department store. As one secretary says, “if you decide on giving gift certificates/store cards – I sincerely hope your next bonus will be paid in the same currency.”
  • New York appears to have its own scale. Even with the bonus slash, many associates are still giving their secretaries $100 per each year the associate has worked at the firm.
  • For those outside of New York, your little gift bundle of holiday joy can stay in the $100-250 range, with junior associates giving about $100, mid-levels giving about $150, and senior associates giving $200+.

    • In case comments are not indicative of general trends, here are some polls to see what your peers are doing. New York is its own world, and gets its own poll:

    And what about the trend across the rest of the country?

    One commenter says that even if you have a bad secretary, “one of those ‘can’t make a copy’ people,” associates should still give a small gift, but should not feel obligated to give a hefty cash bonus.

    More polls — about who you are giving to, and how to handle gift-giving if you’ve changed secretaries — after the jump.

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    Open Thread: The Time for Giving (to your Secretary/Administrative Staff)

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    Secretary.jpgWith the holidays two weeks away, many are starting to think about the frantic search for gifts for loved ones… and loved support staff. A Consumer Reports survey indicates that 76% of Americans will cut back on gift giving this year. Surprise, surprise. But what does it mean for planning your gift for your secretary and/or paralegal?

    Writes one ATL reader:

    I’m a NYC 4th year and for three years have given my secretary $100 per year I’ve been at my firm (plus a small — $25 — physical gift as well). If I follow that pattern, I’d give her $400 cash in a few weeks.

    My secretary is great and I would like to show my appreciation. But this year, with my job hardly safe and my bonus likely to be at Half-Skadden levels (if I even survive long enough to get a bonus), does the $100 per year rule still apply in NYC?

    I think we need a full post on this. It’s not 2007 anymore.

    $400 seems high, even for New York. We thought $150-200 was the going rate.

    For the uninitiated, it’s customary for associates at large law firms to give a cash gift to their administrative assistants, often along with a card or small gift. Not everyone opts for cold, hard cash– some do AmEx or Visa gift cards. (If you do choose to go with bills, please make sure they are not of the soiled, dog-eared variety.)

    One secretary wrote to us this year to voice opposition to the inter-office gift giving (and she’s not the only one):

    How should a legal secretary ask her lawyers to not give her gifts? I don’t think Christmas has any place at work, and, though I respect and appreciate my lawyers, I don’t want them giving me gifts. I find it awkward and embarrassing on many different levels. I’ve been at my current job 5 years and tried at first simply not reciprocating. But they never got the message. I’m dreading this year’s ordeal like the plague. They make a little ceremony of calling me into an office as if I were in trouble. Please ask your readers what I might say that would stop the gifts without offending my guys. Thanks!

    So, here’s an open thread to discuss your gift-giving plans in the current economic environment. Are you scaling back this year due to a diminished bonus? What’s the scale in your town? Does your paralegal get to sit on Santa’s lap as well? And if your secretary wants no part in the 12 days of Christmas, how should she let you know?

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    Thacher Proffitt & Wood Staff Get The Shaft

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    Thacher.jpgThacher Proffitt & Wood has been struggling for some time. A memo sent by managing partner Paul Tvetenstrand to TPW staff the Wednesday before Thanksgiving provides the latest evidence of the firm’s faltering state:

    From: Paul D. Tvetenstrand

    To: Non-legal staff

    As you are aware. The past year has posed many challenges for the firm given the downturn in the economic climate which has affected our clients and ultimately the firm. Unfortunately given this continuing downturn the firm will not be able to pay any bonuses or year end service awards this year. We truly appreciate the contributions each of you has made in these trying times and we wish we were able to recognize each of you as you deserve.

    Paul

    I’m not at all sure why TPW tried to bury this information within the Thanksgiving news cycle. Did they think TPW staffers were not going to notice? Maybe they were thinking of maintaining their industry reputation, but most people who have been paying attention already know that TPW is in serious trouble.

    More TPW back story after the jump.

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