NYC to 200k Forum

[Anonymous User]

back on topic, we need a firm to actually match STB's BONEUSSS.

Damn you Irell, JD

[Anonymous User]

Blech at Irell. I bet a lot of firms try to quickly latch on to what Irell did and avoid any bonuses, or going to 200K.

[cr073137]

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

.

[Anonymous User]

honestly why would you need a system to see if im in the office? you could just call me or send me an email. there's no way our partners would ever even know how to check such a system if we had one.

Why would anyone give a F if you're in the office unless you have a meeting? We have remote access and no longer use the Pony Express. This is why 75 year old+ partners need to retire - they're dead weight.

i agree but many people dont. even a lot of our mid/senior associates are pretty facetimey

[rk42]

ohai DPW partner

This is not a DPW partner. Find a new slant

[Anonymous User]

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

Where do you get this info.... I am based in London, from a top 30 big 10 law school, not even top 10%, and I make NY + 85k COLA + Cravath bonus. And London is not much more expensive than NYC, especially now with the lower exchange rate.

his data lines up exactly with yours

[Anonymous User]

Irell match no bonus

https://abovethelaw.com/2018/06/califor ... ssociates/

IRREELLLLTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

[Anonymous User]

honestly why would you need a system to see if im in the office? you could just call me or send me an email. there's no way our partners would ever even know how to check such a system if we had one.

DPW Corp junior here - fwiw 411 can be legit very helpful in vacation type scenarios bc people put “Project 1 covered by Smith” type stuff on there. I absolutely hate unnecessary calls/emails when I’m on vacation from people who either don’t know I’m gone or need to know who’s covering my deals

[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

DPW Corporate Associate here: the attendance stuff is misleading and blown way out of proportion. The "internal directory" or "411" is used by literally every single person in the firm. Everyone updates it when they get in or go on vacation or are at a meeting, etc. so people know how to get in touch with you. Most people keep a list of all their active matters on there as well as alternative contacts for those matters in case a partner or client needs to reach out to you or someone on the team about it. For attorneys, your assistant updates the 411 for you. When 1-3 yr associates lost their assistants and were assigned to an assistant pool, those associates were asked to update their 411 themselves when they got in the office, went on vacation, working from home, etc. No one did, since we were all used to our assistants doing it for us. Then they tried having the assistant pool email their assigned associates and ask them to update their 411 for the day if they hadn't already. No one responded or did it. So then you had a situation where literally everyone in the firm kept their 411 up to date, except 1-3 yr associates (yes, I know that's a lot of people, but that's besides the point). That's why they now have an assistant from the pool for 1-3 yr associates walk around to see if their assigned associates are in, so they can update your 411. And they don't come exactly at 9:30 - on my floor, the assistant comes around 10, and again around 10:30-11.

Can't speak to M&A partners calling associates in their office to tell them to get in earlier, but I know there are egregious offenders. All of this is not to say that there haven't been cost cutting measures - there definitely have. It was annoying when they got rid of assistants. I'm sure senior associate are pissed they have to share offices (although as mentioned, they are rolling out new internal offices, about ~100 of them, so this should be fixed soon). $25 seamless budget is hardly a real limit - I've gone to $30-35 and haven't had any issues. Black car thing I did get dinged on once when I took it home before 8:30. But that's literally only for the black car service, since it's expensive as fuck and clients won't pay for it. If you've billed all day and take a cab home at 7:30, there's no issue with that.

I disagree with your comment on 411 usage. Yes the partners will have their active matters and status because they have real assistants that will update them. But in my experience very few ppl except the most anal seniors check 411 to see if someone is in the office unless it’s a vacation scenario. On the black car, clients don’t check that kind of shit. Our bills don’t state what time the car was used, only the date. Also, no reason to think our clients are more reluctant to paying those expenses than our peer clients. This is more abt optics.

On the dinner point, ofc you can go above it but the limit gives accounting/associate development justification to give you grief about it. And it definitely happens even if not all the time. Rolling out new internal offices is still not a long term fix if our summer classes stay this size unless we suddenly see much more attrition.

I can say that this is one area where we down in cow-country have you city boys whooped. Every newly minted associate receives a tasteful (and trademarked) branding in an area of their choosing (so long as they choose either forehead or palm). Each branding contains a QR code that you swipe at the security desk every morning (no later than 9am of course, unless you want horse duty for two weeks). We also offer laser removal as a perk (after doctor and parental consent, showing both that your branding has a life of its own and the scar that will be left behind should you decide to remove the branding), should an associate desire to leave the brotherhood firm.

[Anonymous User]

honestly why would you need a system to see if im in the office? you could just call me or send me an email. there's no way our partners would ever even know how to check such a system if we had one.

DPW Corp junior here - fwiw 411 can be legit very helpful in vacation type scenarios bc people put “Project 1 covered by Smith” type stuff on there. I absolutely hate unnecessary calls/emails when I’m on vacation from people who either don’t know I’m gone or need to know who’s covering my deals

Then make the system apply only to vacation. Why would someone need to do that on a daily basis? Y'all should just hire a former Kindergarten teacher to manage the office. I bet it would be cheaper so that you wouldn't need to have 6 senior associates in an office.

[Anonymous User]

honestly why would you need a system to see if im in the office? you could just call me or send me an email. there's no way our partners would ever even know how to check such a system if we had one.

DPW Corp junior here - fwiw 411 can be legit very helpful in vacation type scenarios bc people put “Project 1 covered by Smith” type stuff on there. I absolutely hate unnecessary calls/emails when I’m on vacation from people who either don’t know I’m gone or need to know who’s covering my deals

i dont think anyone is arguing that a vacation database is useful. the issue was with the "am i working from home today for no reason" database.

[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

wtf DPW. Is this a troll? I thought DPW was a S&C and Cravath peer.

[yomisterd]

none of the big guns immediately following STB just shows that STB isn’t a comp leader

NY TO 200K SOON COME

[Anonymous User]

Same DPW anon "defending" the 411 system:

Not to sound overly pretentious (I probably do), but the "working from home" thing when you want isn't an option at a V5 NYC corporate shop. Everyone is in the office, unless you have a real reason not to be. Not saying that's how it should be, it's just how it is. Very different for firms who don't staff all their matters in the same office (K&E, Latham, non-traditional NYC corporate shops).

Cravath, S&C, WLRK, STB - prove me wrong.

[Anonymous User]

what firms get $$ to outfit home office? curious who, the amounts, how often, etc. we get $1500 every 3 years for a laptop but cannot use for anything other than laptop

[Anonymous User]

honestly why would you need a system to see if im in the office? you could just call me or send me an email. there's no way our partners would ever even know how to check such a system if we had one.

DPW Corp junior here - fwiw 411 can be legit very helpful in vacation type scenarios bc people put “Project 1 covered by Smith” type stuff on there. I absolutely hate unnecessary calls/emails when I’m on vacation from people who either don’t know I’m gone or need to know who’s covering my deals

i dont think anyone is arguing that a vacation database is useful. the issue was with the "am i working from home today for no reason" database.

No doubt. Also, this tends to be very group specific like everything else in big law. I’m in one of the smaller Corp groups and i don’t think the partners even check 411.

When I did a large group rotation.. yeah it was a little more kindergarten like. Not defending the firm, just stating my observation.

[Anonymous User]

our partners cant even use microsoft word, i doubt they could check any sort of online system. they would probably call associate 1 and leave them a voicemail tellin them to check associate 2 status in 411 and report back.

[Anonymous User]

Irell had above-market bonuses last year. That seems
To be the expectation there. So they’re already getting paid more than STB and everyone else.

[Anonymous User]

our partners cant even use microsoft word, i doubt they could check any sort of online system. they would probably call associate 1 and leave them a voicemail tellin them to check associate 2 status in 411 and report back.

And bill the client $675 for that

[Anonymous User]

our partners cant even use microsoft word, i doubt they could check any sort of online system. they would probably call associate 1 and leave them a voicemail tellin them to check associate 2 status in 411 and report back.

And bill the client $675 for that

gotta fund this 200k

[Anonymous User]

I was at a conference recently - and was sitting at a table eating my lunch when some old partner walked by and spilled his fish right onto my lap. He just looked at me for a second and then kept walking.

People need to retire.

[Anonymous User]

I was at a conference recently - and was sitting at a table eating my lunch when some old partner walked by and spilled his fish right onto my lap. He just looked at me for a second and then kept walking.

People need to retire.

conference fish - yikes

[Anonymous User]

I was at a conference recently - and was sitting at a table eating my lunch when some old partner walked by and spilled his fish right onto my lap. He just looked at me for a second and then kept walking.

People need to retire.

Is "spilled his fish" a euphemism? If so, I kind of love it.

[Anonymous User]

I was at a conference recently - and was sitting at a table eating my lunch when some old partner walked by and spilled his fish right onto my lap. He just looked at me for a second and then kept walking.

People need to retire.

Is "spilled his fish" a euphemism? If so, I kind of love it.

i hope so.

[Stillblade]

I saw Davis Polk at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.
He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”
I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw DPW trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying.
The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.