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BigLaw Salaries: "A Fundamental Reset"

A growing number of managing partners and management consultants say recent cuts to associate compensation aren't a temporary phenomenon. And a few see an even more significant correction to entry-level lawyer salaries coming in the year ahead.

James Cotterman, a consultant at Altman Weil, is one of the pessimists (or realists, depending on your point of view). "We do not see any movement to reinstate the pre-recession pay levels" in the medium term, Cotterman says.

Since February 2009, at least 19 Am Law 200 firms have rolled back entry-level pay. Most have trimmed between $15,000 and $30,000 from first-year associate salaries that had reached $160,000 in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., beginning in 2007.

The pace of change appears to have picked up in recent months, with some global firms announcing far-reaching changes. Reed Smith cut incoming first-year salaries by 20 percent in November, while at the same time reducing billable-hour expectations and adjusting its training programs. "We don't view this as a temporary adjustment," says Eugene Tillman, the firm's global head of legal personnel. "This is a fundamental reset."

[The American Lawyer]

Was meint die werte Leserschaft: Gilt das auch für Deutschland? Diskussion eröffnet!

Full post as published by jurabilis - German bLAWg from Berlin. on December 12, 2009 (boomark / email).