Biglaw Firm Announces New Base Salary Scale

The legal profession changes slowly (not unlike case law, reliant as it is upon precedent). For example, there has been a shift away from the billable hour over the years, but the billable hour remains the dominant model for charging clients.

And some changes in the legal profession even get reversed. Take the move towards “merit-based” or “performance-based” associate compensation, which a few years ago was all the rage among Biglaw firms. It seems that the momentum in that direction is slowing — or even going the other way.

Earlier this week, one of the most prominent firms using a merit-based system, McDermott Will & Emery, announced changes to its compensation system that keep the performance-based character but appear to make it more lockstep-like. Here’s how one source described it:

On Monday, McDermott Will & Emery announced yet another change to its compensation structure. Essentially, McDermott is returning to a lockstep system. The system tops out lower than the current lockstep system, and the new scale is as follows:

It remains to be seen how this will impact McDermott’s current associate ‘level’ system. Associates were also told that bonuses will continue to be based on prevailing bonus market (essentially the NY market) and individual achievement. The firm does not announce/pay bonus amounts until March, so the impact this has on associate bonuses is unknown at this time.

We reached out to the firm for comment. McDermott shared with us an excerpt from a Q&A that it just shared with its associates (posted in full on the next page). From the memo:

What impact will this change have on bonuses?
The focus of the Firm’s merit-based approach will continue be an Associate’s total compensation for a year (base salary and bonus combined). Based on an Associate’s performance and the market, the Firm will determine the appropriate amount of total compensation for the Associate. At that point, the Associate’s bonus is simply the difference between the Associate’s base salary and the level of total compensation set for the Associate.

Will the Firm continue to pay bonuses based on the New York market?
Yes. The Firm’s philosophy to pay market compensation will not change. Accordingly, in setting bonuses each year, the Firm will continue to follow the New York market….

If I progress more quickly than my class can I still expect a larger bonus?
Yes, if you advance more quickly than your class and essentially jump ahead a class, in assessing comparable market compensation the Firm would look to your “market class” and determine your bonus based on that class and your own performance. If that class is at a higher base salary with a higher bonus, you could expect to receive a higher bonus, again depending on your performance. However, if you don’t keep pace with your class you could also find yourself being moved down a class for purposes of bonus determination.

In a nutshell, it sounds like MWE is sticking with a merit-based approach, but basing it on the traditional Biglaw scale — i.e., the so-called Simpson Thacher scale — instead of McDermott’s “level” system. This strikes me as a good thing, in terms of being simpler and more transparent.

And, according to one MWE source, it’s being received well so far:

Mostly positive reaction from the associates I’ve talked to. [They might] mean a decrease in bonus amounts, although the firm has assured associates that it will still follow NY market for bonus purposes.
It looks like people who had higher salaries than their class year will be grandfathered in until their class year salary catches up to whatever their higher salary was.

So McDermott associates currently earning base salaries above what’s Biglaw standard for their classes are protected against salary cuts. And here is good news for people afraid of taking a hit on base salary due to weak performance:

If I fall behind my class in level advancement, will the Firm lower or freeze my salary?
No, your salary will always be determined by your class.

But here is (potentially) bad news for senior associates above the sixth-year mark:

What happens after my 6^th year?
Salaries after an Associate’s 6^th year will be set individually. Factors in setting the salary will include the market salary for the Associate’s class, the draw level of our newest Income Partners and the Associate’s individual performance. In no case will the salary level be less than the salary for a 6^th year.

In other words, seventh- and eight-year associates aren’t guaranteed the $265,000 and $280,000, respectively, of the Simpson scale. They might get stuck at that $250,000 level — or, if they perform well, they might do better than the Simpson scale. That’s what you get with individually set salaries; as recently discussed, compensation for super-senior associates and for counsel is something of a black box.

It will be very interesting to see what McDermott Will & Emery bonuses look like when they come out later this year.

UPDATE (1/8/2016, 1:13 p.m.): One McDermott source raises this issue:

Under the old system, if you got promoted more quickly than your class, you would get a higher base salary and a higher bonus. They used this fact to hire people laterally from mid-law or in-house with the explanation that spending a year below class allows you to have more time to learn with a lower billing rate, and helps the firm assess where you are on their scale of expectations. In some cases, it really is helpful to the lateral because it allows the firm to hire people who might be great lawyers but haven’t followed the traditional career path. Also, they really have bumped laterals up a year or more in the past.

Under the new system, it seems as if you might get a higher bonus (if you stay all the way until March 15 of the following year), but you don’t get the higher salary. So you might get a higher bonus later, but it is long after the fact, contingent upon staying at the firm, subject to higher withholding (and in most cases, actual) taxes, subject to a minimum (2,000) hours requirement for bonus eligibility, and just generally far less certain because the firm can decide to pay you whatever it wants at that point.

 source: http://abovethelaw.com/2016/01/biglaw-firm-announces-new-base-salary-scale/

Lawyer Jobs - Top 10 Most Lucrative Lawyer Jobs

Lots of opportunities are coming up these days for the students. They have the opportunity to choose the field which they prefer and make proper advancements in their career. It is always important to choose the career which interests you the most.

You should never compromise with your choice in this case because a forced choice might even ruin your career. Legal field has gained quite a lot of popularity among students these days. There has been a steep rise in the number of lawyer jobs opportunities in the country in the recent times.

In the present scenario therefore these jobs have become the hottest jobs as well as the most wanted opportunities. If you are looking for the attorney jobs then you can do so in a number of places.

These job opportunities are available on the internet as well as from the local newspapers. These are high paying job opportunities and they can provide you with compete job satisfaction. The top ten lucrative lawyer jobs available these days are for the fresher as well as for experienced lawyers.

1. Law jobs can provide you with lucrative opportunities to practice in the court. Other than this, you can even start practicing on your own which can also fetch you quite a handful of money. You must always try to climb the ladder of success by gathering more knowledge and experience in this field.

2. Government attorney jobs can also be a lucrative offer. Here you have a secure job and you can learn from your own mistakes.

3. If you do not want to fight cases in the courtroom you can opt for the paralegal jobs. Paralegals are people without whom the lawyers are basically nothing.
The paralegals are responsible for reducing the job of the real lawyer. All the paper work as well as research work is usually done by the paralegals.

4. Corporate lawyers are the hottest trends these days. The corporate companies require lawyers for bankruptcies, mergers as well as acquisitions. These companies usually do not take any important step without consulting their lawyers.

5. Entry level lawyer jobs can also provide you with lucrative opportunities. They help you learn the job and gather useful experience which can be used to achieve success in this field. They pay might not be very good in the beginning but it will improve.

6. To start with lawyer jobs you can choose to the law student jobs. You can join law firms as interns.

7. Real estate attorney jobs can also be interesting in this field. People who join this field usually get at least $60,000 per annum.

8. Medical attorneys also have a lucrative career.

9. You can try out the position of legal secretaries.

10. Check out the position of celebrity lawyers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles. com/5777668

How To Divide Law Firm Partnership Income

One of the quickest ways to silence a roomful of lawyers is to raise the question of how to divide law firm partnership income. Many lawyers are reluctant to discuss the subject because they are unfamiliar with the options and uncertain how to select among them. Others are concerned that a conversation with their partners about compensation splits will be too uncomfortable. The good news is that there are there are enough different ways to slice the pie for each viable firm to be able to find a solution that works. Also, as with other partnership agreements, the conversation becomes much easier if it starts with what kind of culture and behavior the partners want to encourage rather than with money. The actual numbers flow more easily once the goals are clear.

The major variations are as follows:

1. It's Good to Be King. One lawyer is the name behind the firm. He originates many of the clients by virtue of his prowess, reputation or connections. All the others bask in his reflected glory. He gets to look over the books and decide how much the other partners should be making based on subjective or objective criteria. He may not disclose all of what those criteria are. However, most people see the fairness of his decisions. There is enough money coming in to keep most of the people happy most of the time. The incentive is to keep the king happy.

2. The Gang of Four. Instead of having one king, a group of lawyers forms a committee to decide how to split the income for the rest of the partners. At some larger firms, the compensation committee is separate from the executive committee that runs the firm. At others, the compensation committee makes a non-binding recommendation to the executive committee. At still others, it is the same committee. Although the committee likely has to publicize some of the factors on which it makes its decision, the other partners often become supplicants who write up an annual impassioned summary of achievements and predictions for the committee. This structure works if people trust in the process and the people on the committee. The incentive is to shoot for the targets the Gang of Four makes public and to make sure everyone in the Gang likes you.

3. The Black Box. The Black Box is a variation of The Gang of Four, except that the criteria are entirely subjective. It may work if there is enough money to go around, but the problem is that lawyers, like everyone else, often compare themselves to their peers. The subjective element creates a huge potential for perceived unfairness, which can cause rifts in the firm. The incentive is to work hard and play office politics.

4. Eat What You Kill. The EWYK model appeals to the strong strain of individualism in Western culture, and American culture in particular. The theory is that each member of the firm is the captain of her own destiny, can choose how much to work in any given period and should be rewarded for her efforts. It is a very common structure among smaller firms, but tends to go by the wayside as firms grow. The behavior it incentivizes is the sharing of space and administrative resources, individual responsibility, the development of individual practices and a sense of independence. It can also encourage divas. It does not encourage other benefits of being in a firm, such as cross-selling to specialists within the firm, a team-based approach that becomes necessary as matters become more complex and multidisciplinary, the sharing of knowledge, the development of associates coming up through the ranks and, perhaps most importantly, balancing out the strength of individual practices on a year by year basis. A lawyer might have a bad year followed by a good year, while another has a good year then a bad year: the EWYK model does not let them smooth out the cash flow. Finally, the incentive to develop a sense of community within the firm is not emphasized, which means that lawyers feel less incentive to stay. When they leave, they take "their" clients, who have never developed a relationship with others in the firm. Nonetheless, many smaller firms with practices that do not require extensive teamwork find the clarity of the approach appealing.

5. The Formula. The Formula takes the overall firm revenue and plugs in percentage values for factors that may include some or all of

(A) length of service,
(B) client or matter origination,
(C) ongoing relationship management (in case clients get handed over from one lawyer to another),
(D) billing responsibility for a matter (which may be separate from relationship management),
(E) time spent servicing clients,
(F) management and administrative time,
(G) special projects or other incentives,
(H) total hours billed,
(I) prospects for the coming year (especially if there are client payments that will straddle the fiscal year-end, as in corporate matters that get billed at the end of the transaction or contingent fee matters) and
(J) other creative elements.

The advantage is that if everyone knows The Formula, it reduces the chance that people will see distributions for a particular year as being unfair. It sets the incentives. If structured properly, it encourages the kind of internal cooperation that is good for the firm's longevity, which is why it is common throughout the service sector. The disadvantage is that a mechanical formula removes business flexibility and encourages people to structure their practice in ways the framers may not have intended. For instance, big corporate transactions can be very lucrative, but a formula that focuses entirely on collections may encourage business lawyers to move to firms that give them more steady current income rather than periodic bonuses when transactions close.

6. Solomon's Baby. Outside of the law firm world, many people who own partnerships expect a fixed percentage of the profits, like dividends from shares of a corporation. Law firms have two variations:

a. Lock-step compensation, in which everyone in the same year of partnership is paid the same, was the gold standard for generations. Not so today. It requires a huge amount of trust that each member will pull his or her own weight, make up for down years with future up years, get paid less in up years than might be possible elsewhere to even things out or out of a sense of community, and stay with the firm. It requires and encourages teamwork and long term planning, and reduces internal conflict over pay.

b. Some smaller firms have fixed distributions that reflect the perceived relative contributions of the partners. Often, they are based on circumstances at the time the firm is formed and may seem imbalanced as time goes on. The imbalance often fractures firms that do not have a mechanism to revisit fixed percentages as practices develop over time.

7. The Reference Standard. In baseball, even the greenest Major League player is entitled to be paid a minimum salary. Law firms sometimes do the same, with each member of the firm being entitled to receive some minimum compensation. For instance, some firms have decided that no partner should receive less than the highest paid associate. Others use a similar method to calculate retirement or buyout distributions.

8. The Bleacher Seats. Since the 1980s, more and more firms have been moving toward a tiered partnership structure. The tiers are divided differently in different firms, but many contain a tier of "non-equity partners." These partners may hold themselves out as partners to the outside world, but really receive a salary plus bonus based on individual performance and have varying degrees of tenure (some of the many flavors of being "of counsel" overlap with being a "non-equity partner"). The next tier may be paid on a formula that combines a smaller fixed amount plus a percentage of the firm's net income or divides a set percentage of firm profits among all partners in that class. The top tier is often paid on more of a percentage basis divided using one of the approaches outlined above. The assumption is generally that total compensation - and risk - increases as one climbs the tiers. Firms use a tiered structure to manage expectations and attorney development and to maintain firm financial health. Some firms have a policy of moving non-equity partners out the door if they do not advance within a certain period of time. Other firms use the incentive structure to focus non-equity partners on client origination, which may come at the cost of servicing existing firm clients. Rightly or wrongly, many perceive non-equity partners as being like tenured associates who can only advance if the firm fears they will walk away - meaning that they have developed invaluable expertise or a separate, portable client base. As long as the firm stays on top of how its attorneys are developing, though, this system works well enough that most of the nation's largest firms have adopted one or another variation of it.

There is no one "best" way to divide law firm income. Indeed, many firms take a creative approach in combining these basic elements to reach a result that their members find fair. For instance, a firm could pay each partner a minimum and then use another method to divide up any balance of cash left at the end of the year. A firm could distribute a third of its net income on a lock-step basis, a third based on total hours and the rest on a formula basis that gives 70% credit to origination and 30% to service. It all depends on what the partnership wants to reward.

Finally, whether partnership terms work well for any firm depends on one big intangible: trust. Do attorneys trust each other to continue developing and maintaining their separate practices? Do they trust each other enough to work together on firm and client projects, to assume joint liability, to share the burdens of administration and not to jump ship at the first opportunity to make a few extra bucks? Do they trust each other enough to set shared goals and rewards? Most importantly, as they develop the partnership compensation structure, do they trust each other enough to have open, good faith conversations about what kind of firm they want? The level of trust drives the partners' options.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9349989

Lawyer Jobs - How to Become a Successful Lawyer

What kind of work excites you? There are different kinds of career fields present these days. The opportunities are increasing with time but the competition is also increasing at the same time. Whichever field you might choose you will have to face a tough competition. Are you interested in lawyer jobs?

Lawyer Jobs - How to Become a Successful Lawyer

Legal career can be quite interesting. If you love to face challenges then this career is one of the best choices for you. There are some people who think that becoming a lawyer is an easy job. But this is not so. In fact it is quite tough.

If you want to become a successful lawyer then you must be ready for hard work for at least 6 to 7 years. If you are successful in law school only then you can go ahead to become one of the successful lawyers of the country.

Attorney jobs have so popular these days that a large section of students are trying out this field. This is the reason why the competition has increased. But do you know how to become a lawyer? There are certain steps which can help you get the legal jobs.

After finishing your school you must take up a bachelor degree course. This course is usually a four year program. You can choose any subject for your high school but it is always better to choose a law related subject in your degree course.

A major in the law subject will take you some steps ahead in your law career. After you pass out your bachelor's degree you need to enter into a good law school. The major will also help you get you admission in the law school.

You can enter into the law field from any background. After the bachelors degree program you must take the admission test to the law school which is known as LSAT. This is an examination which helps you test your ability in taking up law as your profession.

It is very important for you to understand whether you are fit for the lawyer jobs or not. You must also remember that there are different types of lawyers. Criminal lawyers, civil lawyers are two of the most common types.

After you complete your law school and start practicing it is important for you to choose the type which suits your profile. If you want to become a successful lawyer and to perform well in the lawyer jobs then you must also have certain qualities present in you.

You must be honest and truthful to your clients. You must always be helpful and try your best to provide complete justice to them. After you become a lawyer you must not leave your studies.

The more you study the more you will get enlightened about this field. You can choose a good library to read books on law. Unless you create a strong ground for yourself in the legal jobs you would not be able to become successful. Follow these tips to become successful.

Article Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Lawyer-Jobs---How-to-Become-a-Successful-Lawyer&id=5230769