Baker Botts associates are learning this week about potential changes to their pay and bonus packages that become effective Jan. 1, 2011, says Maria Boyce, partner-in-charge of the firm's Houston office.
The firm is moving associates from lockstep promotions and pay to a merit-based system, she says. Based on each associate's current tenure with the Houston-based firm, they are a junior, mid-level or senior associate. "The initial placement of lawyers into levels is based solely on tenure," she says.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2011, lawyers in each level will be paid the same base salary, have opportunities to earn the same merit-based bonuses and charge the same billing rate, she says. She also notes, "No associate is going to have their base pay cut in 2010 as a result of the introduction of this change."
When annual evaluations are conducted in November and December, the associates will be placed in levels based on their evaluations rather than their seniority, she says. "Based on year-end evaluations, their compensation could be at a lower or higher level, or the same, which affects their base pay and bonus opportunity," she says. "We anticipate that most associates will stay in the same level or move up to the next level effective Jan. 1, 2011."
The new system will impact entry-level associates differently. Boyce notes that entry-level associates will remain at the $160,000 entry-level pay for their first calendar year with the firm.
So why the change? Boyce says the firm introduced an associate-attributes model to its lawyers in 2008 that defines the skills expected of associates at each of three levels as they progress towards firm partnership.
Based on the firm's attributes model, for example, a senior-level associate would be expected to manage and lead a team of lawyers on a transaction or a litigation matter while working with the partner responsible for the matter; a mid-level associate would be expected to help coordinate a team of lawyers; and a junior-level associate would be a member of a team and delegate tasks to professional staff, she says.
The firm adopted the new program to compensate associates for their skills rather than their tenure and to demonstrate to clients that associates' billing rates correlate with their skills, she says.
Annual associate evaluations are conducted by local and firmwide leadership in each department -- corporate, litigation, global projects, tax, environmental and intellectual property -- and are a result of feedback from all lawyers who worked with an associate during the year, Boyce says.
Of the firm's 448 Texas lawyers, 261 are associates, Boyce says. The partners in charge of each office are meeting with each associate in their respective offices this week to discuss the program and each associate's level in the program, she says.
Boyce says the firm's partnership track, where associates are considered for partnership after 8.5 years of practice, is not changing. She says the firm does not release salary information other than the $160,000 base annual salary paid to entry-level associates.
The firm does not have a maximum time frame for an associate to proceed through the levels. "Some will go through the levels more quickly, some more slowly, but there's no deadline," she says.
