Observer Wonders: Can Simpson Thacher Cut Associates' Pay 20% for Late Timekeeping?
A reported plan, by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, to cut the pay of its associates and counsel, going forward, by 20 percent, if they get more than 10 days behind in their timekeeping, has captured the attention of the legal blogosphere.
Can the firm really do this? One employment lawyer says it’s prohibited, in New York, to dock a worker’s current pay for violating a workplace policy. However, because the firm is giving employees advance notice and threatening to do so only in the future, this could well be a legal salary reduction, the lawyer told the Careerist.
An Above the Law post provides a copy of the firm’s internal memo explaining the policy.
It says, in part, that the 20 percent future reduction applies for only one pay period if the associate gets with the program and catches up on his or her timekeeping, which is supposed to be done daily: “Restoration to the prior salary will occur in the pay period following the pay period in which the lawyer’s time records are once again current,” the memo explains, “and retroactive restoration will only be made in exceptional and rare cases, such as in some situations of personal or family illness or emergencies, with such reimbursement to be approved in writing by a co-chair of the personnel committee.”
Simpson Thacher didn’t respond to a request for comment, the Careerist says, and the firm didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment by the ABA Journal.
Hat tip: New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
