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Matching Market Rates, Dechert Announces Associate Bonuses
The Legal Intelligencer
December 23, 2008
After a turbulent year, Dechert will be handing out associate bonuses at market rate.
According to a memo to associates from firm Chairman Barton J. Winokur, which was posted on the legal blog Above the Law, the firm will pay base bonuses starting at $17,500 for Class of 2007 associates and increasing in $2,500 increments per year up to $32,500 for Class of 2001 and Class of 2000 associates who have 1,950 billable, pro bono and nonbillable hours.
Those associates who have billed 2,200, 2,350 or 2,500 hours will be paid an additional $7,500 for each of those plateaus, the memo said.
Associates who logged at least 1,900 hours will receive $10,000, and those with at least 1,750 hours will receive $5,000, as will 2008 graduates, regardless of hours, according to the memo.
The firm may also hand out merit bonuses and will "progress salaries for associates consistent with past practice," the memo said.
The news comes at the end of a rocky 2008 for Dechert.
The firm opened an office in Hong Kong in January and then made headlines in February when it pushed its profits per equity partner over $2 million for 2007 and posted an increase in gross revenue of nearly 15 percent from $729 million in 2006 to $836 million in 2007.
But that news was followed in March with reports that the firm had issued layoff notices to 13 associates strictly in its finance and real estate practice.
Shortly after the firm confirmed the planned layoffs, Winokur issued a statement that the firm would then offer the 13 associates positions in other practice groups.
Winokur later told The Legal Intelligencer that the group was informed the firm couldn't guarantee how long they would be reassigned to a different group. He said 12 of the 13 took the offer and a few left during the first month of the offer.
Ultimately, there were nine or 10 associates from the original 13 who were laid off at the end of three months once their assignment concluded, Winokur said.
In September, the firm opened up shop in Beijing. In October, rumors began swirling on "Above the Law" about "stealth layoffs" at the firm, with several posters to the site claiming associate layoffs ranging from 13 to 80 and even more across several months since March.
In an interview with The Legal Intelligencer, Winokur called the rumors "bull."
In December, a firm spokeswoman confirmed that Dechert had laid off 72 administrative staff across its U.S. offices.
In the associate bonuses memo, Winokur acknowledged an even more challenging year ahead.
"As you know this has been a very difficult year for the world economy and law firms have not been spared from the economic crisis," he said. "More significantly, 2009 looks to be a more difficult year for both the world economy and for law firms. We have, of course, been affected along with most other firms and will certainly not reach the record revenues and profits that we experienced in 2007. Nonetheless, we do expect that, if revenues come in as expected in the next 9 days, we will end with a very good financial year by any reasonable standard. Because of that expectation and the cloudier outlook for the world economy in 2009, we expect to depart from our normal practice of paying bonuses in the following year."
Winokur was unavailable for comment at press time.
