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

[fats provolone]

what a job to be the partner delivering that speech

"guys, we've heard your concerns about compensation and fairness and we've come up with some changes that i think are going to make everyone happy. bonus minimums going up 200 hours. now fight over a plate of cheese like the rats that you are."

[Anonymous User]

what a job to be the partner delivering that speech

"guys, we've heard your concerns about compensation and fairness and we've come up with some changes that i think are going to make everyone happy. bonus minimums going up 200 hours. now fight over a plate of cheese like the rats that you are."

You know they gave the task to the new guy

[Nekrowizard]

Are there people at Skadden billing below 1800?

[fats provolone]

Are there people at Skadden billing below 1800?

not for long

[Big Shrimpin]

f this profession

why did we do this 2 ourselves

[MCFC]

also, this is amazing

Everyone in the room was awestruck and was taken aback by the announcement. Afterward they had a reception where all associates had to share one plate of cheese. It was humiliating.

NYC to one brie!

[First Offense]

Skadden seems like a hopeless clusterfuck. I have never heard a good thing from anyone who works there about the place.

[Anonymous User]

Thats still over 200 hours easier than my firm, we gotta do 2000 and none of those fake hours count-othe rthan pro bono.

[Johann]

i stepped back and thought about this for a minute. 190 or huge bonuses is happening. law firms are just lawyering the rest of the business world right now. its actually pretty genius.

as you know, billing rates have been going up and not getting written off since 2009. and the business world is still not happy 1 bit about because they are little penny pinchers. remember that wall st journal article last shitting all over how lawyers were making too much bonus money? well we cant raise rates without making it look like its coming from somewhere.

so this year, law firms are making their lives even more miserable with 200 more billables or 50 more billables (who cares we all hit that and more anyways), cutting dinner reimbursements, cutting health insurance, etc. so when that client calls up in january and says "why the fuck are you paying these monkeys 190k!!?" the partner can just calmly respond "you may not have seen the news but we are actually working associates harder than ever because there is a shortage and we basically took away the only benefits they had."

just a brilliant plan all around. best lawyering work ive seen in years planting this seed and laying the foundation.

[Big Shrimpin]

i stepped back and thought about this for a minute. 190 or huge bonuses is happening. law firms are just lawyering the rest of the business world right now. its actually pretty genius.

as you know, billing rates have been going up and not getting written off since 2009. and the business world is still not happy 1 bit about because they are little penny pinchers. remember that wall st journal article last shitting all over how lawyers were making too much bonus money? well we cant raise rates without making it look like its coming from somewhere.

so this year, law firms are making their lives even more miserable with 200 more billables or 50 more billables (who cares we all hit that and more anyways), cutting dinner reimbursements, cutting health insurance, etc. so when that client calls up in january and says "why the fuck are you paying these monkeys 190k!!?" the partner can just calmly respond "you may not have seen the news but we are actually working associates harder than ever because there is a shortage and we basically took away the only benefits they had."

just a brilliant plan all around. best lawyering work ive seen in years planting this seed and laying the foundation.

yeh

reiterating my previous poast, self loathing is at an all-time high

also, IR8AF @ teh boomers

but tbh, if i ever make it to BIGBREAKFAST, i might also shit down the dry, wanting throats of my associates

[First Offense]

TBF, that one cheese plate thing is a fucking travesty. Skadden to V6.

[Anonymous User]

Skadden's move doesn't make sense unless NYC -> 190k

Right?

The justification for the billable increase doesn't make sense at all. High billers complained so you made it worse for everyone instead of better for them?

I was at the meeting...it was like a trap. It was advertised to be a review of the firm wide results, then they drop this on us in secret with no formal announcement to the firm via e-mail or anything.

I also have no clue what knowledge management is.

[smaug]

Just because people in this thread are normally joking/trolling, let me clearly say I'm serious about NY to layoffs and shittier bonuses.

It's about keeping partners happy, not keeping associates happy. Folks will still go to Skadden either way, and someone figured out that there's marginal cost savings is preventing a couple of people who are on leave or slacking from getting their bonuses

[Johann]

yeah i dont disagree. some firms may be moving to higher salaries/bonuses to keep midlevels. but it also appears firms are about to trim some fat. theyve been trimming fat everywhere else, so wouldnt surprise me to see some layoffs after xmas

[Desert Fox]

[Old Gregg]

Not really sure what incentive partners have to raise salaries. It's not like there are fewer bitch made associates out there to hire. People at like law students are dumber because of marginally lower lsat averages, but you don't have to be smart to succeed in big law. And it's not like the V10 or whatever faces stiff salary competition from other employers. The system really isn't in place.

I guess you could say the same back when salaries first increased, but didn't that increase originate from a silicon Valley law firm? I can't remember

[UnicornHunter]

Just because people in this thread are normally joking/trolling, let me clearly say I'm serious about NY to layoffs and shittier bonuses.

It's about keeping partners happy, not keeping associates happy. Folks will still go to Skadden either way, and someone figured out that there's marginal cost savings is preventing a couple of people who are on leave or slacking from getting their bonuses

Layoffs don't really make sense unless the market contracts. You could try to force everyone to work more to cover for people you fire, but it's hard to effectively manage that. You end up leaving billables on the table. For example, a team could have 4 attorneys billlin' 2000 hours. You could say, hey, lets just make them all bill 2666 hours. We save 300k in costs! But in order to do all that work, you force the associates to be more efficient (only so many hours in the day). This is why clients worry about number of time keepers on a matter. Associates expand their workload to hit their budget. So those 3 associates might do the work of 4, but they'll almost certainly bill less than the 8000 hours that were being billed. If those associates only bill 2450 hours, the firm will actually lose money by firing the associate. Plus you are burning your associates out and increase turn over.

Other than just forcing out low billers which has always happened.

Screwing us on bonuses will definitely happen. Honestly, it doesn't make sense to give the same bonus to someone who bills 1800 hours and 2800 hours. Especially if the purpose of the bonus to keep the associates billing 2800 from fleeing.

DF to Boies for dat billables sensitive bonus.

[Desert Fox]

[PennBull]

I'm not even close to my pro bono requirement. Will I make bonus?

[WestOfTheRest]

MODS please ban all these goofs ^

[SplitMyPants]

Rly don't like the turn this thread took

[JustHawkin]

Rly don't like the turn this thread took

[fats provolone]

why did bonuses go up last yr

[Anonymous User]

why did bonuses go up last yr

M&A activity was at a record last year. This year is has fallen off significantly. Apparently, partners aren't happy with their 2-5M/year in the V10.

[smaug]

I think the limiting factor you're ignoring is clients arguing more and more with billing, so you can move to leaner staffing and not leave many hours on the table.