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A longtime lurker here. Just wanted to know why Covington is called CovingTTTon here

Couple years ago when salary scale went to either $180k or $190k (I can't remember which), a few firms quickly matched (I think mostly NY shops) and Covington tried to say that scale was appropriate for NY law firms, but that DC was less expensive and their current scale reflected the market rate. Then every firm in the v50 and beyond matched the scale and CovingTTTon was forced to match to keep up.

Basically instead of staying silent and seeing how things played out in the market, they actively spoke up relatively quickly, presumably in an attempt to preempt other matches and get a bunch of other big non-NY firms to join them in keeping salaries stagnant.

And then they were absolutely dragged on here, ATL, etc., and rightfully so.

The previous post is spot on. It's also more fun to mock Covington than many other firms because it's a very established and prestigious firm in DC specifically and the stereotype is that in the old days they were maybe the most prominent firm in the city. Now that big NY and national firms also have significant DC presences that is all much less the case and it's fun to taunt institutions that take themselves too seriously. Also Covington is less profitable than its otherwise peer firms.

One of my friends was a DC associate at Covington at the time of the salary debacle and he lost his shit about it when it wasn't apparent the firm was going to cave on salaries. The associates were all made whole in the end, but it was hilarious how angry he was was at the time and the resentful insults he was texting about the firm as a result. Obviously all in private.

viewtopic.php?p=9390575#p9390575

one of this proud forum's finest posts

Adding that the three TTTs is shorthand for "third tier."

TLSposter1990 wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 07, 2022 5:53 pm

Adding that the three TTTs is shorthand for "third tier."

"Third tier toilet," my friend.

Also, the lack of LobsTTTer

TLS remains the best forum on the internet. Thanks you guys!

randomthrowaway wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 07, 2022 6:00 pm

TLSposter1990 wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 07, 2022 5:53 pm

Adding that the three TTTs is shorthand for "third tier."

"Third tier toilet," my friend.

Ah, I didn't know that!

Skadden has great bathrooms, STB even better.

Which firm has good toilet paper? So sick of that scratchy industrial stuff.

Covington's RPL is barely 1.1 million, below many lower-ranked firms (Steptoe, etc.). The CovingTTTon meme will eventually make a comeback; odds are they eventually fail to match some salary or bonus raise.

Pulsar wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 08, 2022 5:32 pm

Covington's RPL is barely 1.1 million, below many lower-ranked firms (Steptoe, etc.). The CovingTTTon meme will eventually make a comeback; odds are they eventually fail to match some salary or bonus raise.

If this happens, it's likely to be bonus. No reason to flinch on salary, which is extremely visible when you can just make it slightly harder to get bonuses to level out the financials.

Pulsar wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 08, 2022 5:32 pm

Covington's RPL is barely 1.1 million, below many lower-ranked firms (Steptoe, etc.). The CovingTTTon meme will eventually make a comeback; odds are they eventually fail to match some salary or bonus raise.

That RPL is above average for AmLaw 100, and Covington has a pretty low leverage ratio at 2.69 (average is ~4). If they refused to raise, it'll be because they're greedy, not because they can't afford it.

Firms that are actually on the bubble are ones like DLA Piper, which had an RPL of $784,000 and leverage of 8.26 as of 2021. And DLA already matched, which really goes to show that other firms truly have no excuse.

ETA: Covington actually ranked 42nd for RPL in 2020, ahead of Cleary, White & Case, and Dechert, just to name a few that may surprise you. $1.1m RPL is not low, being my point.

The Lsat Airbender wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 07, 2022 5:24 pm

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one of this proud forum's finest posts

I can't take full credit. We were all mining gold that week and CovingTTTon was basically SuTTTer's Mill. I stand on the shoulders of mildly autistic giants.