Salary Information Spotlight

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All About Lawyer Rankings

The recent release of the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America was just the latest in a series of rankings purporting to pick the best and the brightest of the legal profession. But are rankings of any use to consumers? Do legal marketers see them as valuable or annoyances? What ethical issues do they raise? In this week's legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we explore aspects of lawyer ranking lists with three guests.
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Alston & Bird Cuts Associate Pay

Fulton County Daily Report

Alston & Bird is cutting associate pay by $5,000 across the board for the remainder of the year -- a reduction equal to about 7 percent of annual starting pay. The cuts, effective July 15, follow other cost-saving measures undertaken by the firm since the end of last year, including staff and associate layoffs, early retirement packages for senior staff, a reduction in its summer program and a deferred start date for its new first-year class.

Clifford Chance Profits Suffer Steep Fall

The American Lawyer

Clifford Chance has reported a spectacular 37 percent fall in profits per equity partner for the 2008-09 financial year. A fall in profits was expected, given Clifford Chance's exposure to the financial sector -- it has one of the leading banking practices of any U.K. firm. But such a steep decline comes as a surprise. The percentage fall in PPP at Clifford Chance is greater than the decline in profits at Cadwalader, which at 30.8 percent saw the biggest fall in profits among Am Law 100 firms.

Court Says 'Civil Action' Lawyer Had Right to Sue Fellow Attorneys

The National Law Journal

Jan Schlichtmann didn't violate state law when he sued his fellow plaintiffs lawyers in a fee fight, a Massachusetts court ruled Monday. But the ruling isn't likely to help him recover any money. The lawyer, known for his role in the case that inspired the book "A Civil Action," had sued to try to recover $9 million in lost legal fees. He claimed he lost the money when Nestle backed out of a settlement to prevent a lawsuit against it for allegedly making fraudulent claims about the purity of its water.

Study Shows Sharp Disparities in Law Associate Compensation

The National Law Journal

The relatively recent movement to cut law firm associate salaries isn't likely to eliminate the dramatic compensation disparities between new attorneys, according to a National Association for Law Placement survey. The survey of starting associate salaries for 2008 law graduates found that the pay gap was wider than ever. A chart of the pay distribution shows a gradual bulge in the $40,000 to $65,000 range and a dramatic spike at $160,000, which was the starting pay at many large firms last year.

Pay Cuts at Firms Gaining Momentum

The Legal Intelligencer

Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis last week held what is becoming a common meeting at large law firms, to inform its associates, partners and staff that their salaries would be cut. It became the fifth Pennsylvania firm in recent weeks to announce some form of pay cuts. Though the firm said cash flow was not a main consideration in making the cuts, as more firms make these decisions, the issue of managing cash flow has come up as one of the factors that may have played a part in altering compensation models.

Alternative Billing Increasingly Important for Texas Firms, Survey Shows

Texas Lawyer

Balancing the risks and rewards of using alternative billing, such as fixed or contingent fees, is a strategy many firms are employing in today's uncertain economy, based on responses from the 74 firms that completed Texas Lawyer's 2009 Salary & Billing Survey. Other strategies include holding hourly billing rates stable and requiring higher front-end retainers from new clients. The survey shows that average billing rates and employee salaries rose less than 4 percent when compared to 2008 figures.

Ruden McClosky Cuts Pay by 9 Percent

Daily Business Review

Florida-based Ruden McClosky has imposed a 9 percent pay cut on its associates and non-equity partners and informed its equity partners that they are not likely to receive the holdbacks of 18 percent of their pay. The pay cuts have caused many Ruden McClosky attorneys to look for new jobs, legal industry sources said. Ruden's overdependence on real estate transactional work has caused it to be hit particularly hard by the economic downturn. The firm cut about 20 jobs earlier this year, including two attorneys.

Buchanan Ingersoll to Cut Associate Pay

The Legal Intelligencer

In a meeting with associates Thursday, Buchanan Ingersoll CEO John A. Barbour announced that the firm is making cuts in associate compensation, in response to the recession. In information provided to The Legal Intelligencer, Barbour said the firm is reducing associate compensation by between 5 percent and 10 percent per year, effective July 1. The reductions will be determined on an individual basis and will be based on such factors as billable hours, profitability and quality of work, Barbour said.

DLA Piper Plans to Keep Reducing Associate Classes, Discard Lockstep System

The National Law Journal

DLA Piper expects to keep scaling back the size of its associate classes and to make more use of staff attorneys as it revamps its associate program in the face of client demands and the need for cost-cutting, according to the firm's leaders. The largest law firm in the United States, DLA hopes by year's end to have a new associate compensation, training and promotion structure that discards the traditional "lockstep" system of paying associates based on years of service.

What's the Damage? Lawyers Line Up for Payment in Chrysler Case

The American Lawyer

Jones Day, Schulte Roth & Zabel and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel have submitted applications for a new round of attorney fees in the Chapter 11 case of the company formerly known as Chrysler. Two London-based Jones Day lawyers had the highest hourly rates -- $1,175 for the restructuring partner and $1,075 for the employee benefits partner -- while a restructuring associate, also in London, had the highest hourly rate among associates: $825.