The first is that the firm has made staff cuts 14 days before Christmas. The firm has confirmed the staff layoffs to abovethelaw.com but no details were provided on the number of staff cut. No associates were cut.
The firm also laid out the outlines of its new compensation plan being implemented in early 2010. I say outlines, because important details like base compensation seem to have been overlooked. Like many other firms, Sonnenschein is moving to a three tiered merit based system. The firm says that bonuses based on merit will make up a larger part of associate salaries. Although everyone certainly appreciates a large bonus, it does make financial planning a bit more difficult – particularly when nobody yet knows what the baseline pay will be.
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal is an international law firm headquartered in Chicago with 13 offices and 800 attorneys around the world.