NYC to 200k Forum

[Anonymous User]

Not sure why everyone cares so much about all this stuff given that we're all gonna die anyway

[Anonymous User]

Jones Day just matched, with retroactive compensation to summers.

What the heck is "retroactive compensation"? I want that.

What's your source? I'm a JD associate and we've gotten no info, and it would be really atypical of the firm to announce something like this

I’m at JD and can confirm this is true. The summer associates leave for DC tomorrow and this was announced via an email to them.

If this is true, I'd be pretty pissed as an associate that the summer associates found out before I did...

Current summer, can confirm this is true. It's a 10k raise that applies to all offices, so now comp is 170-190k across the board depending on whether you're in a major or secondary market.

Wait just a 10k raise? So not the 15 for seniors? And what does bonuses “rolled into a raise” mean? Are salaries above market?

This all sounds like some bs

No idea about senior bump, we just got told that new lawyers' salary gets a 10k bump. There's a ton on TLS already on how JD comp works

[Anonymous User]

Jones Day just matched, with retroactive compensation to summers.

What the heck is "retroactive compensation"? I want that.

What's your source? I'm a JD associate and we've gotten no info, and it would be really atypical of the firm to announce something like this

I’m at JD and can confirm this is true. The summer associates leave for DC tomorrow and this was announced via an email to them.

If this is true, I'd be pretty pissed as an associate that the summer associates found out before I did...

Current summer, can confirm this is true. It's a 10k raise that applies to all offices, so now comp is 170-190k across the board depending on whether you're in a major or secondary market.

Wait just a 10k raise? So not the 15 for seniors? And what does bonuses “rolled into a raise” mean? Are salaries above market?

This all sounds like some bs[/quote]

No idea about senior bump, we just got told that new lawyers' salary gets a 10k bump. There's a ton on TLS already on how JD comp works[/quote]

Lol ya don’t care that much to search for it and was trying to ask a question of the multiple JD people apparently in this thread — but I get why you wouldn’t wanna talk about it. Why’d you decide to work there?

[McGruff]

Not sure why everyone cares so much about all this stuff given that we're all gonna die anyway

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone think KE will match Milbank and do like 1.5x STB summer bonus?

[Anonymous User]

I think Weil or Paul Weiss are more likely than V5. Can’t speak to experience at S&C but they’ve run out of ways to cut costs over here at DPW re perks and staff. Zero chance we pay more than we have to

Can you be more precise. Where exactly did DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

You would get a shorter answer if you asked the opposite question.

Where did not DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

Would like to know about this (DPW cutting costs re perks) too, please. Can any DPW folks chime in?

[yomisterd]

Not sure why everyone cares so much about all this stuff given that we're all gonna die anyway

y’all should use your forthcoming raises on a good therapist.

[Anonymous User]

Lol ya don’t care that much to search for it and was trying to ask a question of the multiple JD people apparently in this thread — but I get why you wouldn’t wanna talk about it. Why’d you decide to work there?

This is a raises thread, not a JD thread, so I don't want to shift it too much from the focus. The JD thread already existing is a really good resource. Decided to work here because it's the best firm in my particular market

[Anonymous User]

Lol ya don’t care that much to search for it and was trying to ask a question of the multiple JD people apparently in this thread — but I get why you wouldn’t wanna talk about it. Why’d you decide to work there?

This is a raises thread, not a JD thread, so I don't want to shift it too much from the focus. The JD thread already existing is a really good resource. Decided to work here because it's the best firm in my particular market

why not just link it

[MillllerTime]

Does anyone think KE will match Milbank and do like 1.5x STB summer bonus?

Yes. If the end result for K&E associates is a Simpson match, we will have a lot of very pissed off associates.

[Anonymous User]

Would expect KE to match 190 and beat STB's bonus by 1.5x. Probably waiting to see if anyone else pops to 200.

[Anonymous User]

NY to 190 means first years in London start on ~265 to ~280. Crazy. Only Yale/Columbia types get those jobs though.

[Anonymous User]

I think Weil or Paul Weiss are more likely than V5. Can’t speak to experience at S&C but they’ve run out of ways to cut costs over here at DPW re perks and staff. Zero chance we pay more than we have to

Can you be more precise. Where exactly did DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

You would get a shorter answer if you asked the opposite question.

Where did not DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

Would like to know about this (DPW cutting costs re perks) too, please. Can any DPW folks chime in?

Mid level here, corporate. I wouldn’t really say it’s accurate that perks have been cut back, they just never grew commensurate with our peers. The actual cuts have been in the support staff.

Some examples: our seamless budget is lower than our peers ($25 versus $35). They recently imposed a cap on callback lunches with 2Ls. Our high deductible health insurance deal kinda sucks but more firms are moving that way (but as counter point, S&C gets free health insurance). If we take a black car home at 8:15 instead of 8:30, we get a call from accounting asking why (even if we billed 10 hours+ that day). Our office situation for a lot of corporate groups is horrendous. We have senior associates (including 6th years) who still don’t have their own offices. Slightly different for litigators as there are less of them. They’re currently building internal offices but that will take some time to complete. Our laptops are legit from pre-2012 and the batttry life reflects that. We need to make special requests to enable the tethering on our firm phones for a specific period of time. Our holiday party is in the cafeteria. Many of our other social events are in the conference rooms, I think only the bigger summer events go offsite. We recently just got a tech stipend after associates committee complained for several years, but it still lags behind our peers who give a high dollar amount or reimburse home office expenses outright. Other instances of general cheapness and patronizing shit (e.g., M&A partners annoyed that people aren’t at their desks at 9:30 and now associates now up and down the seniority chain are being called in one by one and told to get to office earlier)

On the staff, first they got rid of assistants for all junior and mid level associates and moved to a shared pod system, which is in line with many firms. But then they replaced almost all of the non-partner assistants with non-DPW temp workers. They usually do shit work and aren’t reliable (prob cuz they get paid like shit with no benefits). Also, those temp assistants now walk around the floors every morning with a clipboard to mark who is in the office. There’s a legitimate reason why they need to do that but its irritating nonetheless. Then they made huge cuts to our word processing department to the point where it can take 1-2 days for simple formatting requests.

Tl;dr We’re not raising salaries unless Cravath makes us

[nealric]

I think Weil or Paul Weiss are more likely than V5. Can’t speak to experience at S&C but they’ve run out of ways to cut costs over here at DPW re perks and staff. Zero chance we pay more than we have to

Can you be more precise. Where exactly did DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

You would get a shorter answer if you asked the opposite question.

Where did not DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

Would like to know about this (DPW cutting costs re perks) too, please. Can any DPW folks chime in?

Mid level here, corporate. I wouldn’t really say it’s accurate that perks have been cut back, they just never grew commensurate with our peers. The actual cuts have been in the support staff.

Some examples: our seamless budget is lower than our peers ($25 versus $35). They recently imposed a cap on callback lunches with 2Ls. Our high deductible health insurance deal kinda sucks but more firms are moving that way (but as counter point, S&C gets free health insurance). If we take a black car home at 8:15 instead of 8:30, we get a call from accounting asking why (even if we billed 10 hours+ that day). Our office situation for a lot of corporate groups is horrendous. We have senior associates (including 6th years) who still don’t have their own offices. Slightly different for litigators as there are less of them. They’re currently building internal offices but that will take some time to complete. Our laptops are legit from pre-2012 and the batttry life reflects that. We need to make special requests to enable the tethering on our firm phones for a specific period of time. Our holiday party is in the cafeteria. Many of our other social events are in the conference rooms, I think only the bigger summer events go offsite. We recently just got a tech stipend after associates committee complained for several years, but it still lags behind our peers who give a high dollar amount or reimburse home office expenses outright. Other instances of general cheapness and patronizing shit (e.g., M&A partners annoyed that people aren’t at their desks at 9:30 and now associates now up and down the seniority chain are being called in one by one and told to get to office earlier)

On the staff, first they got rid of assistants for all junior and mid level associates and moved to a shared pod system, which is in line with many firms. But then they replaced almost all of the non-partner assistants with non-DPW temp workers. They usually do shit work and aren’t reliable (prob cuz they get paid like shit with no benefits). Also, those temp assistants now walk around the floors every morning with a clipboard to mark who is in the office. There’s a legitimate reason why they need to do that but its irritating nonetheless. Then they made huge cuts to our word processing department to the point where it can take 1-2 days for simple formatting requests.

Tl;dr We’re not raising salaries unless Cravath makes us

I would have lateraled yesterday.

[Anonymous User]

I think Weil or Paul Weiss are more likely than V5. Can’t speak to experience at S&C but they’ve run out of ways to cut costs over here at DPW re perks and staff. Zero chance we pay more than we have to

Can you be more precise. Where exactly did DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

You would get a shorter answer if you asked the opposite question.

Where did not DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

Would like to know about this (DPW cutting costs re perks) too, please. Can any DPW folks chime in?

Mid level here, corporate. I wouldn’t really say it’s accurate that perks have been cut back, they just never grew commensurate with our peers. The actual cuts have been in the support staff.

Some examples: our seamless budget is lower than our peers ($25 versus $35). They recently imposed a cap on callback lunches with 2Ls. Our high deductible health insurance deal kinda sucks but more firms are moving that way (but as counter point, S&C gets free health insurance). If we take a black car home at 8:15 instead of 8:30, we get a call from accounting asking why (even if we billed 10 hours+ that day). Our office situation for a lot of corporate groups is horrendous. We have senior associates (including 6th years) who still don’t have their own offices. Slightly different for litigators as there are less of them. They’re currently building internal offices but that will take some time to complete. Our laptops are legit from pre-2012 and the batttry life reflects that. We need to make special requests to enable the tethering on our firm phones for a specific period of time. Our holiday party is in the cafeteria. Many of our other social events are in the conference rooms, I think only the bigger summer events go offsite. We recently just got a tech stipend after associates committee complained for several years, but it still lags behind our peers who give a high dollar amount or reimburse home office expenses outright. Other instances of general cheapness and patronizing shit (e.g., M&A partners annoyed that people aren’t at their desks at 9:30 and now associates now up and down the seniority chain are being called in one by one and told to get to office earlier)

On the staff, first they got rid of assistants for all junior and mid level associates and moved to a shared pod system, which is in line with many firms. But then they replaced almost all of the non-partner assistants with non-DPW temp workers. They usually do shit work and aren’t reliable (prob cuz they get paid like shit with no benefits). Also, those temp assistants now walk around the floors every morning with a clipboard to mark who is in the office. There’s a legitimate reason why they need to do that but its irritating nonetheless. Then they made huge cuts to our word processing department to the point where it can take 1-2 days for simple formatting requests.

Tl;dr We’re not raising salaries unless Cravath makes us

Thanks for the detailed answer. Always good to hear someone has it worse than us. Is 25$ really the limit for dinner in NY?

[Anonymous User]

I think Weil or Paul Weiss are more likely than V5. Can’t speak to experience at S&C but they’ve run out of ways to cut costs over here at DPW re perks and staff. Zero chance we pay more than we have to

Can you be more precise. Where exactly did DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

You would get a shorter answer if you asked the opposite question.

Where did not DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

Would like to know about this (DPW cutting costs re perks) too, please. Can any DPW folks chime in?

Mid level here, corporate. I wouldn’t really say it’s accurate that perks have been cut back, they just never grew commensurate with our peers. The actual cuts have been in the support staff.

Some examples: our seamless budget is lower than our peers ($25 versus $35). They recently imposed a cap on callback lunches with 2Ls. Our high deductible health insurance deal kinda sucks but more firms are moving that way (but as counter point, S&C gets free health insurance). If we take a black car home at 8:15 instead of 8:30, we get a call from accounting asking why (even if we billed 10 hours+ that day). Our office situation for a lot of corporate groups is horrendous. We have senior associates (including 6th years) who still don’t have their own offices. Slightly different for litigators as there are less of them. They’re currently building internal offices but that will take some time to complete. Our laptops are legit from pre-2012 and the batttry life reflects that. We need to make special requests to enable the tethering on our firm phones for a specific period of time. Our holiday party is in the cafeteria. Many of our other social events are in the conference rooms, I think only the bigger summer events go offsite. We recently just got a tech stipend after associates committee complained for several years, but it still lags behind our peers who give a high dollar amount or reimburse home office expenses outright. Other instances of general cheapness and patronizing shit (e.g., M&A partners annoyed that people aren’t at their desks at 9:30 and now associates now up and down the seniority chain are being called in one by one and told to get to office earlier)

On the staff, first they got rid of assistants for all junior and mid level associates and moved to a shared pod system, which is in line with many firms. But then they replaced almost all of the non-partner assistants with non-DPW temp workers. They usually do shit work and aren’t reliable (prob cuz they get paid like shit with no benefits). Also, those temp assistants now walk around the floors every morning with a clipboard to mark who is in the office. There’s a legitimate reason why they need to do that but its irritating nonetheless. Then they made huge cuts to our word processing department to the point where it can take 1-2 days for simple formatting requests.

Tl;dr We’re not raising salaries unless Cravath makes us

I would have lateraled yesterday.

Sorry to hear. I really like it here for other reasons, but we are first and foremost a bank firm and our engagements track that (underwriter, lender, regulatory advice, living wills resolution planning etc). Our M&A group, which generates the high margin engagements, isn’t quite on the same level as our V5 peers. Our bank clients expect discounts since we do so much work for them. I understand why the partners need to be more conservative, especially since we’re still a lockstep partnership. But that doesn’t make any of this more palatable for the associates who had or could get offers at comparable firms.

[Yardbird]

I think Weil or Paul Weiss are more likely than V5. Can’t speak to experience at S&C but they’ve run out of ways to cut costs over here at DPW re perks and staff. Zero chance we pay more than we have to

Can you be more precise. Where exactly did DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

You would get a shorter answer if you asked the opposite question.

Where did not DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

Would like to know about this (DPW cutting costs re perks) too, please. Can any DPW folks chime in?

Mid level here, corporate. I wouldn’t really say it’s accurate that perks have been cut back, they just never grew commensurate with our peers. The actual cuts have been in the support staff.

Some examples: our seamless budget is lower than our peers ($25 versus $35). They recently imposed a cap on callback lunches with 2Ls. Our high deductible health insurance deal kinda sucks but more firms are moving that way (but as counter point, S&C gets free health insurance). If we take a black car home at 8:15 instead of 8:30, we get a call from accounting asking why (even if we billed 10 hours+ that day). Our office situation for a lot of corporate groups is horrendous. We have senior associates (including 6th years) who still don’t have their own offices. Slightly different for litigators as there are less of them. They’re currently building internal offices but that will take some time to complete. Our laptops are legit from pre-2012 and the batttry life reflects that. We need to make special requests to enable the tethering on our firm phones for a specific period of time. Our holiday party is in the cafeteria. Many of our other social events are in the conference rooms, I think only the bigger summer events go offsite. We recently just got a tech stipend after associates committee complained for several years, but it still lags behind our peers who give a high dollar amount or reimburse home office expenses outright. Other instances of general cheapness and patronizing shit (e.g., M&A partners annoyed that people aren’t at their desks at 9:30 and now associates now up and down the seniority chain are being called in one by one and told to get to office earlier)

On the staff, first they got rid of assistants for all junior and mid level associates and moved to a shared pod system, which is in line with many firms. But then they replaced almost all of the non-partner assistants with non-DPW temp workers. They usually do shit work and aren’t reliable (prob cuz they get paid like shit with no benefits). Also, those temp assistants now walk around the floors every morning with a clipboard to mark who is in the office. There’s a legitimate reason why they need to do that but its irritating nonetheless. Then they made huge cuts to our word processing department to the point where it can take 1-2 days for simple formatting requests.

Tl;dr We’re not raising salaries unless Cravath makes us

I would have lateraled yesterday.

Stockholm Syndrome?

[Anonymous User]

I've always wished there was a resource to compare fringe benefits (dinner limit, time for dinner/black cars, health insurance, 401k matching (lol), technology budget, cell phone, niceness of office, etc).

[Anonymous User]

I think Weil or Paul Weiss are more likely than V5. Can’t speak to experience at S&C but they’ve run out of ways to cut costs over here at DPW re perks and staff. Zero chance we pay more than we have to

Can you be more precise. Where exactly did DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

You would get a shorter answer if you asked the opposite question.

Where did not DPW cut costs re perks for associates?

Would like to know about this (DPW cutting costs re perks) too, please. Can any DPW folks chime in?

Mid level here, corporate. I wouldn’t really say it’s accurate that perks have been cut back, they just never grew commensurate with our peers. The actual cuts have been in the support staff.

Some examples: our seamless budget is lower than our peers ($25 versus $35). They recently imposed a cap on callback lunches with 2Ls. Our high deductible health insurance deal kinda sucks but more firms are moving that way (but as counter point, S&C gets free health insurance). If we take a black car home at 8:15 instead of 8:30, we get a call from accounting asking why (even if we billed 10 hours+ that day). Our office situation for a lot of corporate groups is horrendous. We have senior associates (including 6th years) who still don’t have their own offices. Slightly different for litigators as there are less of them. They’re currently building internal offices but that will take some time to complete. Our laptops are legit from pre-2012 and the batttry life reflects that. We need to make special requests to enable the tethering on our firm phones for a specific period of time. Our holiday party is in the cafeteria. Many of our other social events are in the conference rooms, I think only the bigger summer events go offsite. We recently just got a tech stipend after associates committee complained for several years, but it still lags behind our peers who give a high dollar amount or reimburse home office expenses outright. Other instances of general cheapness and patronizing shit (e.g., M&A partners annoyed that people aren’t at their desks at 9:30 and now associates now up and down the seniority chain are being called in one by one and told to get to office earlier)

On the staff, first they got rid of assistants for all junior and mid level associates and moved to a shared pod system, which is in line with many firms. But then they replaced almost all of the non-partner assistants with non-DPW temp workers. They usually do shit work and aren’t reliable (prob cuz they get paid like shit with no benefits). Also, those temp assistants now walk around the floors every morning with a clipboard to mark who is in the office. There’s a legitimate reason why they need to do that but its irritating nonetheless. Then they made huge cuts to our word processing department to the point where it can take 1-2 days for simple formatting requests.

Tl;dr We’re not raising salaries unless Cravath makes us

Not DPW associate: but I’d imagine that the bolded was done to increase profitability, since now junior or midlevel associates have to be by their computers all the time to turn line edits from partners who don’t want to make their edits directly in the document. I can’t count how many times I’ve relied on my firm’s processing pool (which is open 24/7, weekends, and holidays) to turn some line edits from a partner sent at 6 on a Friday right after I have left the office (while the partner probably thinks he is squeezing another .5 out of me because my assistant has gone home). Junior associates - this is the type of firm cost-cutting measure that will make your life a living hell.

[MillllerTime]

Also, those temp assistants now walk around the floors every morning with a clipboard to mark who is in the office.

This is RIDICULOUS and DPW deserves to be shunned for it until they stop it and/or raise to 200k.

[Anonymous User]

Inside source at Jones day (who is currently at an SA event) and confirmed that the JD thing is fake news.

Wtf, is this real or not?

[minnbills]

Someone is def trolling re JD. No way that news wouldn't have hit ATL by now.

Also, will you guys please learn to delete quotes within quotes. This thread is turning into a tome.

[JoeySkoko]

I don't understand why they are monitoring who is in? Can you not work from home at DPW or is this some kind of weird exercise to make sure how many people need to escape the burning building in an emergency?

[Anonymous User]

I don't understand why they are monitoring who is in? Can you not work from home at DPW or is this some kind of weird exercise to make sure how many people need to escape the burning building in an emergency?

The official line is that they need to update the internal directory so teams know who is in office versus working remotely. Bullshit though cuz no one really uses it.

ETA: They used to email us every morning to ask if we’re going to be in office but later moved to clipboard after we all ignored those

[JoeySkoko]

The official line is that they need to update the internal directory so teams know who is in office versus working remotely. Bullshit though cuz no one really uses it.

crazy system. even when i'm in the office, you're often not IN your office.