Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Paralegals & Legal Secretaries Blogs -> Practical Paralegalism

Paralegals & Legal Secretaries

: Practical Paralegalism

City Legal Staff Gets Bonuses When Other Employees Do Not

By Lynne DeVenny

In the last two years, many Americans have not received their usual raises and bonuses, and many have lost their jobs. Those that have been laid off would likely have been happy to forego raises and bonuses in order to continue to get regular paychecks.

But the 26 employees of the City of Santa Monica's legal department had a good year, receiving a total payout of $182,000 in bonus pay for 2009-2010.

There might be some grumbling among 300 other city employees, who at the request of former City Manager Lamont Ewell, agreed to give up cash bonuses in exchange for paid time off. Ewell asked them to go without bonuses due to an $8 million budget deficit last year.

Employees of the city's legal department were not asked to forego cash bonuses. City Council member, Richard Bloom, a family law attorney, justified the bonuses as necessary to keep valued legal staffers from seeking higher-paying jobs in the private sector:

The legal business is highly competitive with top attorneys with experience comparable to many on our legal staff earning many hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. The pull of the private sector is always there and, in my view, it is completely appropriate to do what we can to reward excellence and retain our staff.

One legal assistant received a bonus of $8,113.20. In a year where many experienced legal staffers received no bonuses or raises, or were asked to take on a greater work load due to down-sizing and hiring freezes, the pull of the governmental law sector may be getting stronger.

Source: Santa Monica Daily Press

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on June 13, 2010 (boomark / email).