JD Journal » salary advances

Bingham McCutchen Defers Start Dates

Erik Even — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:13:35 +0000

Bingham McCutchen, which ousted 16 attorneys and 23 staff last month, has deferred its incoming associate class to January, 2010.

Deferred associates will receieve a standard $10,000 bar stipend and a $10,000 deferral stipend. They will also be offered a $10,000 salary advance.

Bingham McCutchen LLP is an international law firm with approximately 1,000 attorneys in 11 US offices and three international offices. It represents clients in corporate litigation, cross-border restructurings and insolvencies, financing and securities, government affairs and a wide variety of corporate and technology transactions.

Kilpatrick Stockton Defers Associates, Offers Salary Advance Instead of Stipend

Erik Even — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:53:58 +0000

Kilpatrick Stockton has told its incoming associate class they have been deferred from September 2009 to April 2010.

The deferrals are mandatory, but some departments will be given the leeway to bring associates in early.

The affected associates will get a two-month salary advance — not a stipend, but an advance that will come out of their future salary.

Kilpatrick Stockton employs more than 500 attorneys in ten offices across the globe: Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia; Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, North Carolina; New York, New York; Washington, DC; Dubai, UAE; London, UK; and Stockholm, Sweden.

Thacher Wants Salary Advances Back

Erik Even — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:07:03 +0000

Dissolving Thacher Proffitt & Wood is pursuing its former first-year associates over money provided for bar expenses.

The firm’s dissolution committee and bank are going after the former associates for repayment of salary advances issued last year to cover their bar and start up expenses.

Omer “Jack” Williams, a former Thacher managing partner who chairs Thacher’s seven-member dissolution committee, says associates knew the money was a loan when they took it. “In the exit interviews, we made it clear we anticipated they would pay their loans back,” he said.

Perhaps when the associates joined the firm, they made it clear they expected to be employed so they could pay the money back.

Williams says the committee hasn’t taken any legal action to collect the loan balances and hasn’t discussed what it will do if associates don’t pay.

Thacher, which had nearly 200 lawyers firmwide, was forced into dissolution in December, before the new associates had a chance to fully repay the loans out of their salaries.

Latham & Watkins, which last week laid off 190 associates firmwide, will not seek to get back the bar stipend it paid associates.

DLA Piper also isn’t requiring recently laid-off associates to pay back salary advances.

Bankrupt Heller Ehrman also won’t pursue repayment.