Associate Bonus Watch: ‘Very Satisfying’ Bonuses — Plus A Pay Scale Overhaul
Another firm moves away from merit-based compensation and back toward lockstep.
Biglaw’s Statistical Shortcomings
What are statistics like the billable hour worth, and how can they be improved?
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It’s Mid-January. Do You Know Where Your Raise Is?
Associates at two top law firms freak out over fears of not getting their annual pay raises.
Biglaw: It’s Not All About the Benjamins
What is the secret to success at Cravath and similar firms? And what is the secret to making partner at a place like Cravath?
Associate Bonus Watch: Baker Botts Bounty
Baker Botts bonuses are out. How are they looking?
Career Center Survey Results: Comparing Compensation Systems
Back in 2009, when killing lockstep was all the rage, a number of large law firms announced that they would be moving to some form of a merit-based compensation system. Now that we’re a few years into those systems, how many firms have stuck with the plan? And which systems do associates prefer? Of the […]
5 Tips For Proving Your Legal Department’s Value
Join our expert panel on March 3rd at 1pm ET to explore actionable, emerging ways you can gather and proactively share the data that demonstrates the impact of your work.
NALP 2011: Performance-Based Compensation Systems
The official title of the NALP conference panel that I attended on merit-based compensation contained a playful shout-out to Sarah Palin: “How Is That Performance-Based Compensation System Working for Ya?” The panel was originally supposed to have featured a representative of the now-defunct Howrey law firm. So the snarky answer to the question presented might […]
Career Center Survey: Comparing Compensation Systems
In the throes of the recession, many Biglaw firms jumped on the bandwagon to kill lockstep compensation in favor of a more merit-based system (though some have already fallen off the bandwagon). With a variety of compensation models currently in use among firms today, we want to hear from you about how you get compensated […]
Associate Salary Watch: Big (and Good) News from Winston & Strawn
Well that didn’t take long, did it? On Tuesday afternoon, we wrote about associates at Winston & Strawn who were upset over the lack of news on seniority-based salary bumps. Since we’re well into a new year, associates at top law firms should be getting raises, with first-years becoming second-years ($160K to $170K), second-years becoming […]
Morgan Lewis: Anticipates Large Bonus Pool and Not Moving Towards Merit-Based Compensation
Morgan Lewis & Bockius associates: your long nightmare might be at an end. All the way back in July of 2009, MLB became one of the first firms to announce its intention to do away with lockstep compensation. Back then, the firm was still in the teeth of the recession, it had canceled its 2010 […]
Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Orrick
While expressing a commitment to maintain its new, incredibly transparent, merit-based salary structure, Orrick is moving its base salary back to reaffirming its commitment to $160,000 for first-year associates working in major markets. That’s right, the time for $145K in big offices is almost at an end. UPDATE: Initially spokespeople from Orrick termed the move […]
In Boston, Merit-Based Compensation Could Be Taking Hold
It must be a slow news week over in mainstream media land. Earlier this week, the New York Times did a survey piece about American salary cuts that tangentially touched on lawyer salaries — old news for people on top of the legal market, but probably new to a more general audience. Today, the Boston […]
Biglaw Salary Stragglers: Foley & Lardner
We’ve done a number of reports over the last few weeks on salary cuts of 2009 that are being reversed in 2010. Sure, some firms are still trying to be cute when it comes to associate pay. But many Biglaw firms are back on the $160K scale for associate salaries, at least in major markets. […]
Baker Botts Releases New Merit-Based Compensation Levels
Back in November, Baker Botts told us that they would be moving away from a lockstep associate compensation system and instituting a new merit-based system. Yesterday the firm released the base salary levels for its new four-tiered system. Here’s the statement from the firm regarding the basic changes: The next phase of a talent management […]
Akin Gump Back to $160K: Another Merit-Based Plan Offers Market-Level Base Salaries
It started with DLA Piper. After offering recession salaries to associates for a while under the guise of merit-based compensation, DLA relented earlier this month and restored the $160K base salary scale to its associates. Yesterday, WilmerHale announced that while it too is going forward with a merit-based compensation plan, it will be offering base […]