Raises (sort of) and Bonuses at Pillsbury

joshua — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:01:35 +0000

Let’s start with the easy part. Associates in the New York office of Pillsbury are having their salaries restored to the level they would have been at had they never been frozen in the first place, so long as they met their billable hour target of 1,755 hours. Associates that missed their target are still getting a raise, but are only being bumped up one level.

Outside of New York, associates are also getting raises but based on a new compensation model that has base pay set lower. For example, first year associates in California will have a base pay of $145k instead of New York’s $160k. This isn’t terribly uncommon and we’re still on familiar ground here. Associates in DC, Virgina and California (but not Sacramento) who hit their billable hour target for the year will get an extra bonus bringing them up to the New York base pay level. Seems reasonable. All other US associates are stuck with their lower salaries.

Salaries for Asia have not yet been set and the firm says it’s working on it.

Things get a bit more complicated for bonuses. Once again, New York associates have a clear bonus plan that matches the Cravath scale. Outside of New York, associate bonuses are tiered based on some combination of billable hours and merit, and will either be less than the Cravath scale (for the somewhat meritorious) or at the Cravath scale (if you’ve been very very good this year).

Orrick Abandons Lock-step Compensation for Associates

Erik Even — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:35:01 +0000

San Francisco’s Orrick, which laid off 300 employees in March, is abandoning lock-step compensation for associates.

Under a lock-step scheme, associate salaries are determined entirely by how long the associate has been with the firm.

Orrick’s new compensation model places associates on the partner track into one of three levels: Associate, Managing Associate, and Senior Associate. Compensation will be based on level, and clear guidelines for moving up through the levels will be provided.

Associates not on the track to partner will be on a personalized program called the Custom Track.

The firm is also expanding its associate training, mentoring, and feedback systems.

San Francisco, California-based Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe was founded in 1863, and has over 1,100 lawyers worldwide in 21 offices. The firm’s day-to-day administrative operations are centralized at a Global Operations Center in Wheeling, West Virginia.

JD Journal » associates compensation

Raises (sort of) and Bonuses at Pillsbury

Orrick Abandons Lock-step Compensation for Associates