Biglaw

Having Promised To Not Follow The Market, This Firm Is Trying To Quietly Pay A Lucky Few

If you haven't gotten a raise, the firm might simply not value you.

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Two months ago, when Biglaw raises were just a ray of Milbank’s magnanimity, Greenberg Traurig chairman Richard Rosenbaum boldly proclaimed that the firm would not be following along. He declared the firm “wind proof” from the market forces of associate compensation.

Now that the market has fully moved and Greenberg Traurig associates can rightly claim to be among the most underpaid associates in Biglaw, the firm is in a tough spot. Do they admit that market forces… exist? Or do they stubbornly continue to make associates pay for the firm’s “culture.” Or is there a third way?

Tipsters report that Greenberg Traurig is quietly making raises for some associate class years in some markets and practice groups, but the raises are not across the board and are not to be publicized.

Without giving anybody away, it appears that valuable practice groups in major markets received a raise to market compensation. Some, but certainly not all, associates in these treasured practice groups also received the summer bonus. The news was communicated on a individual basis, and Greenberg isn’t telling its associates what the plan actually is or what you had to do, or have to do going forward, to receive market compensation.

Greenberg Traurig did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

This isn’t a bad strategy, especially if you think of your employees as a greedy labor force with no collective bargaining power, as opposed to trusted colleagues. Raising some associates, but not others, creates division. It engenders feelings of pride among the favored practice groups, while sowing doubt in the minds of those who didn’t get a raise that maybe they just aren’t good enough lawyers to merit one.

And, not for nothing, paying people differently based on where they work and what they work on is what most firms would do if the market wasn’t so collusive. If you were running a law and shirtwaists factory, you’d obviously pay the highly skilled labor in the major market more than the unskilled labor in a secondary market, and make intelligent distinctions for every classification of worker in between.

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So the real difference between what Greenberg is doing and what a better run company would do is… transparency. People should be able to know that if that they’ll be paid below market in a secondary market, but at market in a major one. They should know which practice groups GT values most highly, if those practice groups can expect to be paid more than others. Lawyers are smart, they can make and accept their own decisions if you just give them enough information to make those decisions.

At the very least, the firm shouldn’t sacrifice transparency and honesty with its associates just so the chairman can save face in the press.

Announcing that the firm was immune to the market was probably a mistake. GT needs to admit that, take its medicine, and tell all of their associates what their compensation plan really is.

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of this stuff. So when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Raises Salaries”). 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.

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.

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