From: The Executive Committee To: ASSOCIATES – NY; ASSOCIATES – DC Cc: PARTNERS – FIRMWIDE Sent: Fri Nov 20 11:11:01 2009 Subject: 2009 Associate Bonuses
The Executive Committee is pleased to announce the following year-end bonuses for associates:
Class of 2008: $7,500
Class of 2007: $10,000
Class of 2006: $15,000
Class of 2005: $20,000
Class of 2004: $25,000
Class of 2003: $30,000
Class of 2002 and senior: $30,000
Bonuses will be paid on December 18, 2009, consistent with our customary practices. The Firm greatly appreciates the efforts of our associates over the course of the year.
Don’t feel bad, guys; there are a lot of great things you can do with $7,500.
More on Willkie’s bonuses after the jump.
As we roll through the next segment of the 2010 Vault rankings, we get into some firms that have been caught testing the stealth layoff waters. To refresh your memory, here is the next list of firms:
Check out the big move by Munger. It’s up 11 spots on this year’s list. And let’s not forget about the firm’s #1 A-List ranking by Am Law earlier this year. Munger’s managed to do all of this without laying off a massive number of associates. Hopefully other Biglaw firms (and current 2Ls) will take note.
We know people have strong opinions about some of the firms on this list. Let’s get into them after the jump.
Rejoice, wedding fans! We have some compelling mid-summer material for you this week: Wachtell, SCOTUS, lesbians, French nobility — read on for the details on all of that and more, as reported in the New York Times and filtered by us.
Our finalist couples:
Last week, a very angry comment appeared in one of our threads:
Well its official Wilkie [sic] Farr Gallagher has started the rounds of FIRINGS. It is utterly despicable that these firms can turn around and fire people under the guise of “poor performance”. After treating their associates as two bit whores for years they sending them out when the fleet is in. As soon as the ships leave the harbor the partners at these firms toss their associates out like the used prophylactic used to service their clients. Its understandable that in a bad economy that belts have to be tightened but to have the outright GALL to place the blame on the associates who have worked 80 hour weeks and worked through weekends for you, just to stamp them with “sub-par” is outrageous.
The truly troubling point is that the Mayor of New York Mr. Bloomberg seems to be ok with such behavior. Since he has no in house council he attorneys are Wilkie attorneys, so in a sense his own employees. I for one am not sure I can vote for or abide by a man that allows his own employees to flat out degrade associates like that. Since there is a growing number of individuals who seem to come across a similar situation maybe a statement needs to be made. Bloomberg wants to be mayor again, maybe he should side those of us that need his help and damn the disreputable firms, otherwise we’ll have to find someone who will.
For those of you who are not fluent in ATL commenter-speak, allow me to translate: “Willkie is doing stealth layoffs. I’m voting for Bill Thompson because I got fired from Bloomberg News for poor performance. I think sailors look so cute in their little hats.”
After running down sources for almost a week, Above the Law can now confirm that stealth layoffs have actually occurred at Willkie Farr, and more formal moves could be coming.
We get into the details after the jump.
Yesterday’s staff layoff post generated a lot of tips and rumors. Please keep them coming. It appears that staffs are taking it on the chin even worse than associates and partner profit margins.
While we are still playing “fact or fiction” with some of the rumors, we can now report these additional staff reductions around the world of Biglaw.
First off, Julie Kay at the National Law Journal reports that Squire Sanders laid off a number of staff from a variety of positions:
Alvin Davis, managing partner of Squire Sanders’ Miami office, said on Friday that Miami employees laid off at the firm on Thursday include “a couple runners, some staffers and a few people in accounting.”
Times are so bad firms can’t even afford the accountants who tell them how bad times are.
There were conflicting reports as to whether any attorneys got caught in the crossfire:
But while Davis said no lawyers were laid off, sources inside the firm said that lawyers indeed had been laid off, but were still working at the firm until they find jobs elsewhere.
The email didn’t bother to explain why, since it’s pretty clear that market conditions have beaten associates into submission with a giant, invisible hand.
The Executive Committee is pleased to announce the following year end bonuses for associates:
Class of 2008: $17,500 (pro-rated)
Class of 2007: $17,500
Class of 2006: $20,000
Class of 2005: $22,500
Class of 2004: $25,000
Class of 2003: $27,500
Class of 2002: $30,000
Class of 2001 and senior: $32,500
Bonuses will be paid in December, consistent with our customary practices.
The Firm appreciates your efforts during these challenging times.
Welcome to another post in the 2009 Vault 100 open thread series. You all seem to like having the law firms listed in groups of ten, so we’ll keep it up. Here are the thirty-something firms from the Vault 100, with prestige scores in parentheses:
Fried Frank and Cadwalader have been on the ATL radar of late. We broke news of staff layoffs at Fried Frank earlier this week, and news of the attorney bloodletting at Cadwalader last month. As noted in Cadwalader’s notable perks: “ouch, layoffs.” (Speaking of, in going through the Vault 100 list, we’ve discovered that Vault’s definition of “perk” is very different from ours.)
In the comments, the curious can pose questions, and the insiders can share insights. More threads to come. Earlier:Vault 100 Open Threads – 2009
Last June, the WSJ Law Blog wondered: Are law students emotional wrecks? Here is more evidence — and there’s already quite a lot in these pages — that the answer to the question is yes.
It started out innocently enough. A legal recruiting assistant at Willkie Farr & Gallagher sent out this email on Friday:
From: [Legal Recruiting Assistant]@willkie.com Sent: 4/4/2008 9:44:44 AM To: [2008 Summer Associates] Subject: Re: Willkie T-Shirts
We hope that the final stretch of your year is going well and that you’re looking forward to joining us in a few weeks. Willkie t-shirts are being ordered for all of you, so we’ll need you to send your shirt size to us as soon as possible but no later than Friday, April 11 at noon. Please note that we will be placing the final order on that date and that if we do not have your size by then, we will order a large for you.
Because after we stuff you full of summer lunches, like foie gras-producing fowl, that’s all you will fit into.
Please reply to this message and provide your name and shirt size in the subject line. You can choose from the following standard men’s t-shirt sizes: small, medium, large, x-large, or xx-large. Example: “[Legal Recruiting Assistant], medium.”
Willkie hires some pretty smart summer associates — e.g., Jeremy Blachman, of Anonymous Lawyer fame — so we don’t know why Legal Recruiting Assistant felt the need to provide an example. Or maybe she just wanted to flaunt her status as a “medium”? (Then again, it’s not as prestigious as being a size zero.)
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, and good luck with your upcoming exams. Thank you. ____________________ [redacted] Legal Recruiting Assistant Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 787 7th Avenue New York, NY 10019
And then things got…. weird. Read the two super-strange email messages that one member of the summer class sent in response, after the jump.
We’re sorry we don’t have more associate bonus news to report. Unfortunately, we have to wait for it to happen; we can’t just make it up.
So while we wait for more announcements — it’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so we’re hoping for some announcements in the afternoon — let’s talk about a related subject: staff bonuses.
In its bonus memo from earlier this month, Willkie Farr & Gallagher announced that it would be paying a special bonus to its administrative staff as well as its associates. And it turns out that Willkie is not alone. We’re hearing that Weil, Gotshal & Manges is paying its support staff a special bonus as well.
The Weil special bonus equals one week’s base salary. It will go to all support staff: “secretaries, paralegals, litigation support — the whole nine yards.”
The amount is not life-changing; at a week’s salary, the bonus equals about 2 percent of base. But it’s still a nice move, and something else for Weil paralegals to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
What other firms besides Willkie and Weil are paying special bonuses to staff? Feel free to discuss in the comments.
We’re sorry we don’t have more associate bonus news to report. Unfortunately, we have to wait for it to happen; we can’t just make it up.
So while we wait for more announcements — it’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so we’re hoping for some announcements in the afternoon — let’s talk about a related subject: staff bonuses.
In its bonus memo from earlier this month, Willkie Farr & Gallagher announced that it would be paying a special bonus to its administrative staff as well as its associates. And it turns out that Willkie is not alone. We’re hearing that Weil, Gotshal & Manges is paying its support staff a special bonus as well.
The Weil special bonus equals one week’s base salary. It will go to all support staff: “secretaries, paralegals, litigation support — the whole nine yards.”
The amount is not life-changing; at a week’s salary, the bonus equals about 2 percent of base. But it’s still a nice move, and something else for Weil paralegals to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
What other firms besides Willkie and Weil are paying special bonuses to staff? Feel free to discuss in the comments.
Watch to find out what some of our subscribers received in their May box!
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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.
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?
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!
Bonus season is now in full swing. Sources report that Willkie Farr has announced bonuses that match the Cravath scale.
