Salary Cuts

The New York Times has a nice survey piece about all the salary cuts imposed upon American workers. It’s a story that anybody holding down a job through this recession is probably aware of: Local and state governments, as well as some companies, are squeezing their employees to work the same amount for less money […]

K&L Gates is cutting salaries, again. This time the cuts seem directed at K&L Gates associates in the firm’s Boston office. But more importantly, these appear to be tactical cuts that will hurt associates currently at the firm, while doing as little damage as possible to K&L’s recruiting brochures. A tipster reports the headline news: […]

Last week, we told you that Katten Muchin was delaying its decision on associate salaries. The firm finally got around to telling people how much they’re paid this week, and we can see why there was a long delay. See, when you try to do 1,001 different things all that same time, it gets pretty […]

Everybody knows that the Charlotte legal market has taken a beating during the recession. But we didn’t know that it was so bad that the firms couldn’t afford to pay people. This tip comes in from Charlotte-centric Moore & Van Allen: Just passing along in case this warrants further investigation (i.e., if anyone still gives […]

Friday brought good news and bad news for Winston & Strawn associates. The good news is that the double salary freeze, which has apparently resulted in first- through third-year associates at Winston all earning $160,000, may be thawing. Managing partner Thomas Fitzgerald sent a memo — this time to its intended recipients — indicating that […]

Is Biglaw getting over the gloom of the recession? Back in October, Morrison & Foerster was feeling pessimistic about attorney salaries. It decided to cut salaries for first-year associates from $160,000 to $145,000. Only associates in pricey New York and Asia — MoFo has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo, all expensive cities […]

There’s good news at Cooley Godward Kronish. The firm was among the many that froze salaries last year. This month, Cooley announced it’s more of a hottie. The good news is that the firm is taking salaries out of the freezer. The bad news is that the salaries have suffered some freezer burn. The firm’s […]

Many associates are hoping that 2010 will bring an end to the layoffs, pay cuts and deferrals of 2009. But so far January has brought more of the same at several major law firms. This week, our ATL / Lateral Link survey asks whether you think your firm will institute more layoffs and pay cuts […]

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 […]

Add Dickstein Shapiro to the list of firms that have decided to do away with lockstep associate compensation. As of January 22, Dickstein will adopt a new merit-based compensation system. Like many firms that have abandoned lockstep, Dickstein will be using a three-tiered system, similar to Orrick’s compensation structure. Starting salary for new Dickstein associates […]

After being inundated with firms that are trying to cut salaries through the implementation of a merit-based associate compensation structure, it’s refreshing to see a firm cut salaries the old fashioned way. Tipsters report that Kaye Scholer is just going about its paycut in a straightforward manner: Associates will be paid on a 145K scale […]

As we have discussed at length, it’s one thing to move to a merit-based compensation structure. Many associates will accept it. What really seems to bother people is when the firm kills lockstep and replaces it with a system that includes a significant salary cut. E.g., DLA Piper. Now, McDermott Will & Emery is poised […]

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 […]

On Monday, Dechert made its 2009 bonus announcement. It’s a match of the Cravath scale. The Legal Intelligencer reports: Dechert’s bonuses for 2009, though lower than those paid out for 2008, are in line with what market-setting Cravath Swaine & Moore announced in November. In a memo obtained by The Legal Intelligencer, Chairman Barton J. […]

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 […]

Yesterday, we reported that K&L Gates cut salaries for its incoming associates. The salary cut is just for a few of the firm’s many offices, but it looks like I got the offices wrong. The firm still hasn’t responded to my request for clarification, but tipsters who work at K&L Gates have helped set the […]

We have some good news and some bad news for incoming K&L Gates associates. I’m feeling charitable, so I’ll lead with the good news. Our sources report that everybody is officially set to start on January 4th. The firm called people over the weekend to mention some final, minor details, but people will have a […]

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 […]

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 […]

Haynes and Boone deferred its incoming first-year associates to November 30. First-years at the firm will be happy to know that the firm is keeping its promise and they will be starting just after Thanksgiving. But they won’t be starting at full salary. Incoming associates got the news on Friday. An angry tipster let us […]