Remember That Raise We Told You About… We Have Some Bad News

UPDATE (7/1/16, 12:09 p.m.): Uh-oh… associates are going to be even madder. Read on….

Oh, June 16th… It seems so very long ago. Back then, Morgan Lewis associates were delighted to hear that their firm was matching the celebrated Cravath scale. Firm chair Jami Wintz McKeon let everyone know via an after-hours (technically… I mean, as if anyone is actually gone before 7 p.m.) voicemail and promised a full memo would follow.

And then we waited.

And waited.

Now, on July 1st, the date everyone expects to see their new raises take effect, the other shoe drops:

The firm chair sent us a voicemail last night finally disclosing the “additional details” she left out of her voicemail from two weeks ago (most notably, when the raises would actually go into effect).  We were told that the firm’s raises wouldn’t be implemented until 10/1, the beginning of our fiscal year, “because it would be easier administratively” — but not to worry, because they would be giving all associates in good standing a true-up bonus catching up what we should have been paid between July and October. They also said this would give them time to figure what they should pay their 8th years who, unlike 99% of our peer firms, are not staying on the Cravath scale and instead are having their salaries determined on a case by case basis. Oh, and not addressed in the voicemail was the fact that, apparently, unlike pretty much everyone else we’re not giving the raise to our summers (or if we are, associates weren’t told that – perhaps because it would piss us off that they could get theirs immediately but we can’t).

Waiting until October for raises? Placing eighth-years on “case-by-case” compensation? Not paying summers? These are a whole lot of details to leave out of the first message. UPDATE (7/1/16 12:09 p.m.): We’ve been advised that the summers ARE getting raises now, meaning they’re currently getting paychecks bigger than first-years, which is… I mean, wow.

Unless the first message was designed to reap all the positive PR of a match and then hope everyone is off the subject by July. But we wouldn’t want to believe any firm could be so cynical.

At least there’s this vague promise of a bonus to cover the gap (months in the future), but some associates aren’t too confident:

Morgan Lewis just heard that our pay raise won’t go into effect til the next fiscal year on October 1, with a “make whole bonus.” Embarrassing. Morgan Lewis was basically dragged complaining and screaming into the pay raise. No wonder we are having problems with recruiting.

A make whole bonus for “associates in good standing,” whatever that means.

And it sounds like the firm is already resorting to the unfortunate, entirely ominous warnings — as if to scold their own associates for having the audacity to continue working in a world where Cravath’s partners have changed the rules:

Steven Brown, a member of firm management, held a town hall prior to announcing the raises and made some pretty scary comments indicating that if the firm raises salaries they’ll have to “consider what to do about under-utilized associates” as well as raising the firm’s minimum billable hour requirement. So the fact that they’ve pushed the raise effective date out to the beginning of the next fiscal year has a lot of people nervous that layoffs are coming.

Stay strong, Morgan Lewis associates. This is one firm we’ll be watching very closely come “Associate Bonus Watch” season.

Remember, when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches Cravath”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

Earlier: Another Associate Pay Raise — From The Largest Firm Yet To Hike Salaries

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Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.