Associates

Hogan & Hartson Nudges 30 Associates Out the Door

The beltway powerhouse Hogan & Hartson is letting go of 30 senior associates. Performance and not enough opportunity for advancement are reasons the firm cited when confirming reports posted on Above the Law that associates have been counseled to take three to four months to look for employment elsewhere. ATL…

Jul 10, 2009 7:04 PM CDT

Midsize Firms in California Mulling Associate Pay Cuts

Some midsize firms in California have already cut associate salaries, while others are thinking it over. The market rate for new associates at midsize firms is $160,000, and some firms claim they will continue to pay that amount, the Recorder reports. But some have already announced cuts. Howard Rice Nemerovski…

Jul 10, 2009 1:32 PM CDT

Orrick’s ‘09 Summers to Have 2012 Starts; Campus Recruiting Delayed

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has confronted the “unfortunate bottleneck of talented law students” caused by deferring the start dates of class of 2008 associates by stating early in the game that its current summer associates who are ultimately hired will not start work until January 2012 “after completion of an…

Jul 9, 2009 3:57 PM CDT

Too Many Women Lawyers are Like Oz’s Dorothy, Partner Says

Women lawyers looking for advancement would do well to study Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, according to a law firm partner who founded the Opt-In Project. “Dorothy was a true leader,” writes Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe employment law partner Patricia Gillette in a post for the Am Law Daily.…

Jul 8, 2009 2:10 PM CDT

Baker & McKenzie to Lay Off 11% of Lawyers, Professionals in China

Updated: Baker & McKenzie plans to lay off 11 percent of its 350 lawyers plus professional staffers in China and Hong Kong. Baker & McKenzie confirmed its plans in an e-mail to Bloomberg News and the ABA Journal. It plans to lay off a comparable number of secretarial and support…

Jul 8, 2009 11:56 AM CDT

Cadwalader Asks 34 Lawyers to Take One-Year Sabbatical

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has announced that it has asked 34 of its lawyers to take a one-year sabbatical for “one-third of their current compensation and medical benefits.” The firm says in the statement provided to the ABA Journal that its capital markets and real estate finance groups don’t have…

Jul 7, 2009 7:24 PM CDT

Barnes & Thornburg Adds Five BigLaw Laterals in Chicago

Barnes & Thornburg has brought its attorney count in Chicago to 85 by after hiring five new laterals in during the past month. The National Law Journal reports that there is still room for another 35 lawyers in the Indianapolis-based firm’s Chicago office. These are the latest hires: • Heather…

Jul 7, 2009 4:33 PM CDT

Are Law Firms Beginning a Summer Doldrums for Layoffs?

The start of summer marks the slowest month so far for law firm layoffs. A midyear review by the blog Law Shucks finds that June was the slowest month for layoffs this year. That month, 481 people were laid off at major law firms—347 staffers and 134 lawyers. The worst…

Jul 7, 2009 12:11 PM CDT

Hires from Ropes & Gray Summer Class to Start in 2011

Ropes & Gray plans to hire from its current summer class “according to the usual standards and in the same numbers as in the past,” but those hires will start work “no earlier” than 2011. A Ropes & Gray internal memo published by Above the Law says that the firm…

Jul 6, 2009 5:53 PM CDT

Should On-Campus Interviews Be Postponed Until Spring?

For decades, it has been customary for BigLaw firms to conduct on-campus interviews for summer associates shortly after the law school year begins in the fall. In recent years, there has even been an increasing trend toward starting as early as August. But, given a seeming seismic shift in the…

Jul 2, 2009 7:17 PM CDT

Alston & Bird Chops $5K Off ‘09 Pay for Associates, Says ‘Market is Shifting’

Joining a growing number of law firms that are cutting associate pay, essentially, because they can, Alston & Bird has announced that it will reduce the salaries of all 451 of the firm’s associates by $5,000 for the rest of the year. “It is no secret the market is shifting,”…

Jul 2, 2009 4:47 PM CDT

Blank Rome Cuts Pay of New Associates to $130K

New associates at Blank Rome are getting a $15,000 pay cut. New salaries for first-year associates will drop to $130,000, while others will see pay cuts ranging from 2 percent to 10 percent, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports. The firm announced the slashed salaries after at least five other Pennsylvania…

Jul 2, 2009 2:11 PM CDT

Out of a Job, But Not Off the Hook

Dissolved firm won’t forgive bar exam loans

Jul 2, 2009 1:10 AM CDT

Orrick Axes Lockstep Pay and Staffing, Amps Up Training in New Practice Model

In a press release posted on its website today, Orrick trumpets a new “talent model” that will, as the law firm puts it, “re-engineer the way the law firm delivers high-value legal service.” Central to the plan is the elimination of a so-called lockstep pay scale that ups the ante…

Jul 1, 2009 10:50 PM CDT

Layoffs a ‘Blessing’ for Now-Liberated Former BigLaw Attorneys, Writer Says

Few may have realized it when Calawalader Wickersham & Taft last July became the first major firm to initiate what eventually became a tsunami of BigLaw associate layoffs during the past year. But Calwalader and the other law firms involved were actually doing many associates a favor, writes attorney Dan…

Jul 1, 2009 8:31 PM CDT