JD Journal » freezing salaries

Addleshaw Goddard Reports 30% Drop in PPP

Erik Even — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:38:20 +0000

Addleshaw Goddard, which cut 19 partners in February and 85 staff in March, saw a 30.8% plummet in partner profits in fiscal 2008; and turnover fell 11.4% to £173.3 million ($285.5 million).

Profits per equity partner nosedived from £586,000 ($958,000) to £405,000 ($663,000).

The firm is considering reduced work hours and unpaid sabbaticals. There is already a salary freeze in effect.

Addleshaw Goddard LLP is a UK law firm, with almost 750 lawyers and 1,350 staff, based in Leeds, London and Manchester. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of Addleshaw Booth & Co with Theodore Goddard.

According to The Lawyer, a UK legal newspaper, Addleshaw Goddard was ranked 15th largest law firm in the UK by turnover in 2006.

Ashurst Freezing All Non-Partner Salaries

Erik Even — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:57:53 +0000

Ashurst has slashed pay for its incoming class, and is freezing salaries for all non-partner lawyers and support staff.

Trainee solicitors who qualified with Ashurst this month will receive salaries of £60,000 ($83,800), as opposed to the £65,000 ($90,800) last year’s intake received. All other lawyers and support staff will see their pay bands held at 2008 levels, despite progressing a year in qualification terms.

Earlier this month, the firm cut staff hours.

Ashurst has over 800 lawyers, including over 199 partners, in twelve countries. Founded in 1822, the firm was known as Ashurst Morris Crisp until it rebranded in late 2003.

Rumor: Buchanan Ingersoll Freezing Salaries

Erik Even — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:54:18 +0000

A tipster tells Above the Law that, four days after laying off staff positions, Buchanan Ingersoll is freezing associate salaries.

Buchanan Ingersoll announced a salary freeze for 2009 for all associates except “unusual” cases, e.g., laterals who were brought in at what is now perceived to be slightly undermarket salaries last year may get bumped a little. Several other raises on a case-by-case basis, but they will be few.

If you have any details about this salary freeze, please let us know!

Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney PC is a law firm and lobbying group based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The firm has over 500 lawyers in sixteen offices nationwide, and was ranked 82nd on the National Law Journal’s 2008 list of the 250 largest law firms in the United States.

Via ATL.

It’s Official: Mayer Brown Freezing Salaries

Erik Even — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:43:31 +0000

Above the Law reported two weekends back the rumor that Biglaw colossus Mayer Brown would freeze salaries for 2009. Now it’s official.

As most of you know, we have instituted various prudent and significant cost-cutting measures in recent months. As part of this effort, we have decided to keep base salaries for associates progressing to the next class year at 2008 levels for 2009. As the year progresses, we will evaluate whether to provide class increases. [emphasis ours]

The good news is:

Eligible associates will be receiving bonuses for 2008; we will be announcing bonus decisions in February for those who have not received their bonuses already.

ATL has more quotes, including this amusing triple-negative you can spend a few hours parsing:

The fact that THIS year you don’t have an increase yet WITHOUT any firmwide announcement (which has NEVER happened, btw) doesn’t mean anything.

Ah, English. If only there were some free school you could attend for 12 years, and learn to speak it.

Are Biglaw Firms Freezing Salaries Without Telling Anyone?

Erik Even — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:35:45 +0000

Anonymous sources are telling Above the Law that their 2009 paychecks are identical to their 2008 ones — with no actual announcement of a salary freeze. Which is really pissing people off.

ATL identifies the culprits as Biglaw firms Mayer Brown of Chicago, DC’s Steptoe & Johnson and NYC’s Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.

Today was the first pay day in 2009 for Mayer Brown NY. In the past, our first pay check of the year automatically reflected salary increases. No such increase today. Smells like a pay freeze?!? With the added courtesy of letting ADP announce it instead of management.

But…

I work at Mayer Brown. Every year they raise salaries in March and retroactively pay associates what they would have gotten since March. Definitely getting sick of panickers here. These people need to get a life.

Hmn. Does that last guy really think he’s getting a raise this year, with the entire industry freezing salaries? The only question here seems to be, will the partners announce the freeze like professionals, or go all passive-aggressive?

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