Salary Freeze

Oh yes, it's time federal clerks got back to the good life. A memo went out yesterday from Senior Judge Thomas Hogan who heads the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Hogan informed the system that the freeze on promotions, step increases, and cash awards for federal clerks has been lifted for this year. It's cool to be a federal clerk again! Well, it's cool to be a federal clerk on a two-year or long term clerkship, again. But maybe only for this moment. Austerity could rear her ugly head right around the corner....

It appears that Larry Sonsini, chairman and name partner of the high-powered Wilson Sonsini law firm, is a very good golfer. Earlier this year, while playing golf to celebrate his 70th birthday, the legendary lawyer scored a hole in one. Sonsini isn’t the only one who’s scoring over at 650 Page Mill Road. His partners […]

There was a time in this country where the holiday season was a time to be rewarded for a good year of work. People received bonuses. People received pay raises, so their salaries could keep pace with their growing experience and maturity (or at least keep up with inflation). The America where that kind of […]

Back in February, we wrote about various compensation developments over at Pillsbury Winthrop. At the time, the firm said it was considering moving away from a lockstep model in favor of a more performance-based compensation system. The firm has not yet killed killed lockstep — a move that has historically generated mixed to negative reviews […]

Friday brought good news and bad news for Winston & Strawn associates. The good news is that the double salary freeze, which has apparently resulted in first- through third-year associates at Winston all earning $160,000, may be thawing. Managing partner Thomas Fitzgerald sent a memo — this time to its intended recipients — indicating that […]

It looks like Pillsbury is back to communicating important information via firm-wide memo, instead of via cell phone conversation on the Acela. Yesterday, the firm indicated that it is thinking about moving away from lockstep associate compensation, but it is not killing lockstep just yet. Instead, Pillsbury announced lockstep raises — they’ll be true up […]

Major news coming out of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The firm just announced that 45 attorneys and 68 staff were laid off: [I]t is with regret that we announce that the firm will be downsizing our associate, legal support, and administrative ranks, with 45 attorneys and 68 staff directly affected. Members and staff managers […]

While woutheastern United States Senators are busy making the world safe for Toyota, southeastern law firms are busy just trying to survive. The latest bad news comes the 132-year-old law firm Womble Carlyle. The North Carolina-based firm has decided to freeze salary increases for all attorneys through the first half of 2009 at least: In […]