There’s a lot of news coming out of Goodwin Procter today. Some of it is even pretty good. In a wide-ranging, firm-wide memo, Goodwin announced bonuses (basically), thawed out salaries (kind of), and indicated an intention to adopt a merit-based compensation structure (sort of). Let’s start with the bonus news: Maybe you got a little […]
Way back in November 2008, Bryan Cave became one of the first firms to freeze associate salaries. At the time, the firm said that it was only delaying its planned salary increase by three months. But firms said a lot of things back in 2008 that proved unworkable in 2009. A tipster reports that the […]
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We’ve been reporting on firms that have announced pay freezes for 2010, but at some firms, the salary outlook for 2010 is still unclear. For example, associates at Mayer Brown and Willkie Farr are huddled in the dark, not sure if they’re freezing. From a junior Willkie associate: I’m a second-year associate at Willkie. I […]
First year associates at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman got a poke last night that didn’t make them “hee-hee.” The announcement was not made on the Acela. It came via a firm-wide email from executive partners Jeffrey Grill and Sheryl Stein. All first years, except those in New York, are having their salaries cut. From the […]
Before the holidays, we reported that Latham & Watkins planned on making a true-up salary raise, putting its associates back on the level they would have been on had Latham never frozen salaries in the first place. Today, Latham made it official. Multiple tipsters tell us the firm just announced its 2010 salary structure: It […]
We all know that Venable is a “wacky” place to work. But is the firm also cheap? Last week, the firm announced its 2010 salary structure. It’s almost like Venable looked at all the different ways firms are handling salaries and decided to try all of them, at the same time. The firm-wide memo from […]
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Ed. note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the firm has not yet communicated to its associates about salaries. This was correct as of late December, but shortly before the new year, the firm made its announcement. We have amended the post accordingly, and we apologize for the error. It’s a brand […]
Much of the recent talk about Hogan & Hartson has focused on their merger with Lovells. While transatlantic mergers thrill the imagination, back on the ground in the States, people are still concerned about their paychecks. Hogan has long had a two-track salary system. The higher track paid market salary with the expectation that associates […]
As firms start to unfreeze salaries, all in different ways, we at Above the Law have started to notice a lot of confusion about what these unfrozen salary structures look like. We’ve been seeing a lot of comments and emails like this one: wtf is a true up vs. a thaw…dude…not everyone reads this blog […]
We previously expressed skepticism towards the notion of a salary thaw. As Elie wrote, “Ha. Haha. Unfreezing? Yeah. Let me just ride my unicorn down the streets of El Dorado and see what there is to see.” But perhaps the joke is on us. It seems that some firms are unfreezing salaries. On this subject, […]
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Cheerio, old chap! This week brings news of bonuses — and a salary “unfreeze” — in the New York office of Allen & Overy. Allen & Overy — a global mega-firm with over $2 billion in annual revenue, headquartered in London but with a worldwide footprint — is making a go of it here in […]
The artifice of the slurpee salary freeze and the “temporary” salary cut can be put to rest. As long as you are not doing keggers with the firm Kool-Aid, you already know that Biglaw will keep associate salaries depressed for as long as they can. It’s not hard to see where this is going, as […]
If you thought you left the curve behind when you graduated law school, think again. DLA Piper has decided to throw its hat into the killing lockstep arena. In a long memo released to associates this morning, DLA outlines its intention to withhold a greater percentage of associate compensation until the end of the year. […]
On Wednesday, we reported that Patton Boggs was keeping its salary freeze in place. In November, we told you that Covington & Burling was instituting a salary freeze, even though the firm didn’t do it last year. But the news coming out of D.C. isn’t putting a damper on the holiday hopefulness of some New […]
Yesterday we reported that Patton Boggs was having an all associates meeting and wanted its people to be there in person. With everybody gathered around, Patton Boggs unleashed a torrent of news. First things first. Here’s the bonus announcement, from a statement the firm released to Above the Law about the meeting: As usual, we […]