JD Journal » first year salaries

Morrison & Foerster Raise First-Year Salaries Back to $160,000

sara — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:23:18 +0000

Morrison & Foerster will return first year salaries to $160,000 after lowering them late last year. The firm lowered starting salaries to $145,000 beginning last October outside of New York and Asia. In a memo to associates on Tuesday Chairman Keith Wetmore said, “Although a great deal of uncertainty continues regarding how the economy will perform in 2010, we, like our most successful competitors, remain in demand. We are planning conservatively for 2010. However, if 2009 is a predictor, 2010 will provide opportunity despite its challenges.”

Morrison & Foerster was founded in 1883 and has over 1,000 attorneys. Headquartered in San Francisco, the firm has 16 offices in various locations throughout the world.

Orrick Moves Away From Lockstep

joshua — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:50:06 +0000

Orrick presented its new compensation plan to its associates today, and there was much rejoicing. Unlike many firms that cut base salaries with discretionary bonuses, Orrick kept the $160k starting salary for first year associates. After that associates will be arranged in three tiers, associates, managing associates and senior associates. The three tier system is something we’ve seen from several firms that have abandoned lockstep this year, but Orrick also has multiple pay scales within each tier. At the high end, senior associates will pull down a base salary of $250k, plus bonuses. In addition, Orrick says it will pay bonuses at market rate plus an additional discretionary amount of 5-15%, depending on tier. This is a very competitive structure and should make Orrick a strong competitor for recruitment. The salary changes will begin in 2010 but the firm says it will pay bonuses for 2009 based on this structure.

Haynes & Boone Cut First Year Salaries

joshua — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:40:58 +0000

First year associates at Haynes & Boone will be starting after Thanksgiving, but at a reduced rate. The firm emailed its incoming associates and informed them that the salary for first years has been cut to $145k. The firm says that it has not decided on a pay structure for 2010 yet so this may be a temporary cut, but that seems unlikely in today’s market. The rush to $160k was fueled by competition for the best students coming out of law school and was coupled with other perks and benefits, lavish events and other promotions designed to win the hearts and minds of the next generation of lawyers. With law school enrollment on the rise and the number of biglaw jobs on the decline, the tables have turned a bit and firms don’t need to persuade recent graduates to come work for them. A job offer is enough.

Clients are also pushing for lower hourly rates, particularly from first year lawyers who are essentially getting on the job training at the clients expense. In today’s economy, firms are increasingly catering to the wishes of their clients in order to get the business and so more and more firms are offering cut rates for first year hours, or moving to alternative fee structures. None of this adds up to returning salaries to 160k next year for Haynes & Boone first year associates.

That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, and if it does happen I will happily eat my words.