Law Firm Consultant Predicts ‘Absolutely’ More Layoffs... Forum

[071816]

This sounds awesome. Entrepreneurial. What did you perceive the downsides to be?

This eat what you kill mentality seems like it would foster an unhealthy level of competition (because nobody is guaranteed anything). Also, the attorneys at a firm like that would probably burn out super quickly because, not only do you have to worry about doing your work well for clients, you would have to worry about bringing in a lot of your own work as a junior attorney. To me it sounds like a free-market system on steroids without any of the perks.

i should say that this is a midlaw firm, it's located in the suburbs, hours expectations are relatively low. their costs and rates are super low (for obvious reasons) so they have a pretty good amount of somewhat unsexy, low-margin work. it actually seemed like a decent place if you're super entrepreneurial and want to have a ton of flexibility (i mean, you're basically an hourly worker, so lol @ face time).

Out of curiosity, do you have any idea how much junior attorneys at this firm tend to make per year?

[IrwinM.Fletcher]

I'm not sure why firms don't start going to a system like this:

80K base, with 10% of your billed hour as bonus (paid monthly), 15% over 2000 hours.

That way, when times are tough, they have automatic cuts in salary, and in boom times, there is real incentive to bill more.

i interviewed at a firm with no base salary. the associates essentially "bill" the partners they're doing work for. the partners pay the associates immediately, and then collect from the client (and may split with other partner(s) based on who originated the work, who managed it, etc).

sounded fucking crazy to me.

I bet partners there write down associates' hours like crazy to bone them out of pay. Sounds awesome.

[09042014]

I'm not sure why firms don't start going to a system like this:

80K base, with 10% of your billed hour as bonus (paid monthly), 15% over 2000 hours.

That way, when times are tough, they have automatic cuts in salary, and in boom times, there is real incentive to bill more.

i interviewed at a firm with no base salary. the associates essentially "bill" the partners they're doing work for. the partners pay the associates immediately, and then collect from the client (and may split with other partner(s) based on who originated the work, who managed it, etc).

sounded fucking crazy to me.

I bet partners there write down associates' hours like crazy to bone them out of pay. Sounds awesome.

Then the partners would be boned out of their pay.

[fatduck]

This sounds awesome. Entrepreneurial. What did you perceive the downsides to be?

This eat what you kill mentality seems like it would foster an unhealthy level of competition (because nobody is guaranteed anything). Also, the attorneys at a firm like that would probably burn out super quickly because, not only do you have to worry about doing your work well for clients, you would have to worry about bringing in a lot of your own work as a junior attorney. To me it sounds like a free-market system on steroids without any of the perks.

i should say that this is a midlaw firm, it's located in the suburbs, hours expectations are relatively low. their costs and rates are super low (for obvious reasons) so they have a pretty good amount of somewhat unsexy, low-margin work. it actually seemed like a decent place if you're super entrepreneurial and want to have a ton of flexibility (i mean, you're basically an hourly worker, so lol @ face time).

Out of curiosity, do you have any idea how much junior attorneys at this firm tend to make per year?

i didn't ask directly, but the people i talked to seemed pretty busy. it's definitely not biglaw numbers, but i gathered people were working pretty steady hours and making somewhere in the 70-100 range. i actually talked to one guy who works in-house at a company, and then works at this firm part-time. seemed kind of cool.

[run26.2]

Out of curiosity, do you have any idea how much junior attorneys at this firm tend to make per year?

i didn't ask directly, but the people i talked to seemed pretty busy. it's definitely not biglaw numbers, but i gathered people were working pretty steady hours and making somewhere in the 70-100 range. i actually talked to one guy who works in-house at a company, and then works at this firm part-time. seemed kind of cool.[/quote]
Any idea what the partners were bringing in?

[fatduck]

Any idea what the partners were bringing in?

i talked to two partners, and both were previously equity partners at biglaw firms. i can't imagine they're doing poorly.

[fatduck]

since people are probably wondering what firm this is, here is an article written by one of the partners, if you're curious.

[spleenworship]

american lawyer article on Citi Midyear Report

Wow. .

[spleenworship]

since people are probably wondering what firm this is, here is an article written by one of the partners, if you're curious.

Interesting article. Liked it.

[071816]

since people are probably wondering what firm this is, here is an article written by one of the partners, if you're curious.

Interesting. I read this article a while back actually. Just never bothered to research the firm

[IAFG]

I think firms should move to the suburbs, at least most of their people, maybe keep a floor downtown for meeting clients. Save a ton of money that way.

Shut your whore mouth.