NY GOES TO 180k! IT HAPPENED!!!! (CovingTTTon does a 180! Holder wept.) Forum

[El Pollito]

Dude if they just rolled over and gave us 180, you know they've got at least 10 more. What would Tony Soprano do here? Or better yet, Paulie?

exactly

cravath moved and everyone else immediately matched or pretended they could

cravath needs to move again to separate the men from the seyfarths

(Recently smug Fish associate)

1. no
2. don't be creepy

[bern victim]

he wasn't being serious

[DELG]

wow the seyfarth memo is aggressive. you can just silently not match instead of admitting your firm is going under.

Can't find it on ATL where is this

http://abovethelaw.com/2016/06/one-firm ... e-thing/2/

Sad.

[bern victim]

"other cost-cutting measures" is so brutal

[El Pollito]

"other cost-cutting measures" is so brutal

i can't think of a worse way not to match

unless their goal is to try to get people to lateral before they're forced to lay people off

[bern victim]

"other cost-cutting measures" is so brutal

i can't think of a worse way not to match

unless their goal is to try to get people to lateral before they're forced to lay people off

it's a way to make the low-hours associates say "hmm actually maybe noraise isn't so bad after all guys"

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know what K&S raised salaries to in Atlanta?

[nahumya]

Does anyone know what K&S raised salaries to in Atlanta?

ATL says yes, but not to 180k.

[Anonymous User]

The guy that trolled re:fish. you are terrible.

[rpupkin]

"other cost-cutting measures" is so brutal

i can't think of a worse way not to match

unless their goal is to try to get people to lateral before they're forced to lay people off

it's a way to make the low-hours associates say "hmm actually maybe noraise isn't so bad after all guys"

Yeah. By the way, partners are going to be more insufferable than ever now that pay has been raised. "Well, this should put an end to associates' complaints about work-life balance" Partners will love using this as an excuse to wreck your nights and weekends.

[kaysta]

^^no sooner was it thought than it did become action,
and the partners lingered not in their zeal 1 Cor 5:18

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know what K&S raised salaries to in Atlanta?

ATL says yes, but not to 180k.

I heard K&S is 155 in Atlanta. There was no memo.

[Anonymous User]

"other cost-cutting measures" is so brutal

i can't think of a worse way not to match

unless their goal is to try to get people to lateral before they're forced to lay people off

Ironic that they do this just *after* Mr. Poor retires as chairman:

http://www.seyfarth.com/SPoor

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know what K&S raised salaries to in Atlanta?

ATL says yes, but not to 180k.

I heard K&S is 155 in Atlanta. There was no memo.

I heard the same. Associates received individual memos with only their class year's salary.

[Anonymous User]

Wh matched. All us offices plus summers effective July 1.

Denver to 180!

At least five firms in Denver now pay 180: GDC, MoFo, A&P, Wilmer, and Hogan. Hogan by far has the most associates of that group. Should put a little pressure on the smaller Denver-based firms (WTO, DGS, Brownstein, etc.) to increase comp, at least for midlevels and senior associates.

[rpupkin]

Shamelessly greedy rising 2L here. What chance do folks think there is of NY going full 190 in the next ~2 years? Seems like 145 - 160 went pretty quickly.

rpupkin usually has the inside info on this stuff but I'd say if history is any guide it's very likely. Sure it took 9 years for this raise, but before that just two years, and before that five years. The pattern is pretty unmistakable.

Tiago has the right idea. My sources tell me that NYC to 185 is likely by Fall 2017. There's some speculation that, with just a $5K difference, firms really will be able to get away with limiting the next raise to NYC offices.

As for 190, I'm not optimistic. I was hoping that Boies Schiller would lead the way, but they went from being $14K above market ($174K) to right at market ($180K) for first years. Meanwhile, Boies did beat market for second year associates, using the "Price Is Right bidding strategy" approach to shattering the market: $192K. That's not getting it done, David Boies.

[TLSModBot]

So I've been looking over the AmLaw financial data for Seyfarth. Not sure why they're holding the line on raises:

They have positive profit growth for the past two years, something a solid third of the AmLaw 200 cannot claim. Their growth hasn't been wild - they're middle of the pack for this past year and lower third among positive growth firms for 2014 - but it has been steady.

The estimated cost to raise salaries would be somewhere around $8-10M (and that's assuming they raised by the same amounts in the Cravath scale AND that they raised for all offices). Their previous year growth alone was ~$35M; this is something they can afford. The hit to PPP would be ~$43K per partner; not really that terrible.

So why is Seyfarth pushing back? I don't think it's their finances. It might be that this approach better matches their LEAN SIX SIGMA EFFICIENCY philosophy: they can't raise rates or offset the costs onto clients because their whole selling point is that they can do cost efficiency and better delivery of legal services. It might just be that they're cheap or they don't think there will be significant consequences to their hiring or retention (remember: Seyfarth already pays below market). I'm not really sure what their plan is here.

[TLSModBot]

Not gonna lie looking at law firm BIGDATA is kinda doing it for me

(feverishly downloads ALL of ALM's data collection sets before his law school free access gets shut down)

[bern victim]

Maybe they're pitching BoA

[rpupkin]

So I've been looking over the AmLaw financial data for Seyfarth. Not sure why they're holding the line on raises:

They have positive profit growth for the past two years, something a solid third of the AmLaw 200 cannot claim. Their growth hasn't been wild - they're middle of the pack for this past year and lower third among positive growth firms for 2014 - but it has been steady.

The estimated cost to raise salaries would be somewhere around $8-10M (and that's assuming they raised by the same amounts in the Cravath scale AND that they raised for all offices). Their previous year growth alone was ~$35M; this is something they can afford. The hit to PPP would be ~$43K per partner; not really that terrible.

So why is Seyfarth pushing back? I don't think it's their finances. It might be that this approach better matches their LEAN SIX SIGMA EFFICIENCY philosophy: they can't raise rates or offset the costs onto clients because their whole selling point is that they can do cost efficiency and better delivery of legal services. It might just be that they're cheap or they don't think there will be significant consequences to their hiring or retention (remember: Seyfarth already pays below market). I'm not really sure what their plan is here.

You kids want to know a dirty little secret? There is little if any difference in quality between a top-third student at a T30 law school (who would sacrifice their first born for a $100K/yr job) and a median student at Penn (who would be devastated if he didn't get a job as an associate at a NYC V50). A firm that pays below market still has a massive pool of reasonably qualified law school graduates to hire from.

[TLSModBot]

You kids want to know a dirty little secret? There is little if any difference in quality between a top-third student at a T30 law school (who would sacrifice their first born for a $100K/yr job) and a median student at Penn (who would be devastated if he didn't get a job as an associate at a NYC V50). A firm that pays below market still has a massive pool of reasonably qualified law school graduates to hire from.

Well duh if they're only coming from Penn. But what about a real Ivy that isn't on the down and out?

[rpupkin]

You kids want to know a dirty little secret? There is little if any difference in quality between a top-third student at a T30 law school (who would sacrifice their first born for a $100K/yr job) and a median student at Penn (who would be devastated if he didn't get a job as an associate at a NYC V50). A firm that pays below market still has a massive pool of reasonably qualified law school graduates to hire from.

Well duh if they're only coming from Penn. But what about a real Ivy that isn't on the down and out?

Fair.

[bern victim]

who cares about law students. why would any good junior or midlevel associate stay at seyfarttt if they don't match

[Pokemon]

But client would gladly pay 450 an hour for prestigious ivy grad doc review. When they see that t-30 associate they balk at bill.

[rpupkin]

who cares about law students. why would any good junior or midlevel associate stay at seyfarttt if they don't match

Serious question: How do you distinguish a good junior associate from a not good junior associate?