Anyone in biglaw get a pay cut?
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Anonymous
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Hasn't it basically just been less than one billing cycle since COVID-19? Is BigLaw this certain their clients won't be paying and/or their work will be gone? Seems preemptive at this point and perhaps premature.
It's hard to believe their margins are this narrow that they would need to cut associates' pay this soon. Unlike bars, restaurants, or retail stores, they've been able to operate continuously and bill for services. Makes more sense to start with decreasing profit distributions to partners first, if anything. |
Anonymous
| Biglaw lawyers are greedy and extremely risk averse. They will slash their staff then be understaffed when things pick up. It’s the typical cycle. |
Anonymous
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Op here. I am in the L&E group, which has been busy. Practice group leader told an of counsel in the group that the firm is seriously looking at furloughs and layoffs, including for partners without a 100% equity interest in the firm.
I’m a traditional labor lawyer and service the book of a fairly of a fairly big rainmaker so I hopefully have some job protection, but who knows. The employment litigators have to be fairly worried right now. |
Anonymous
| When you think about it, yes, COVID 19 shut everything down mid-March, and BigLaw, which has been able to bill continuously, is already cutting pay and staff, without waiting first to see what payments they get. Sad. |
Anonymous
Haven't they been busy counseling clients on FFCRA, CARES, WARN, furloughs, unemployment, severance agreements? The ones I know have been. I can see why traditional labor would not be as busy with manufacturing shut down. |
Anonymous
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"Not a lawyer, but why would a firm lay off an associate in a busy practice area? Seems dumb. I like the idea of cross-training strong associates in dead areas though."
Some will do it to protect partners whose practices have slowed down, but passing that associate's work on to the partner. I suspect that unless our economy does a sharp "V", review time at big law will be ugly, with associates, of counsel and some non-equity partners getting false and overly-negative reviews in order to set them up for performance-based layoffs. |
Anonymous
My husband is also a big rainmaker law partner at a AM Law rated firm. They are planning for layoffs if needed and already announced 20 percent pay cut. I personally think it’s premature as there is positive news. We are better off than most people but they are talking even more cuts to partner profits, it’s like 50 percent. And this firm makes budget every year so it’s not like they don’t know how to manage money. |
Anonymous
| Associates and staff, watch to see how much equity partners distribute to themselves at this time. Are they sacrificing their exorbitant distributions for others lower on the totem pole, or are they being greedy and self-centered, content to watch cuts and layoffs while they take more than enough to "maintain their current lifestyle." |
Anonymous
Hopefully not. Why bother with this charade, when when they're at-will employees, and the firm can just "blame the economy."? |
Anonymous
Everyone in the group was busy with the things you mentioned, but that’s slowing down a lot. The employment litigators are the biggest group (and least specialized) so if there are cuts that’s where you start. There are very few manufacturing companies with unions anymore - that stuff has all been offshored or moved to “right to work” states. Most of our clients are in healthcare and hospitality. Both are hurting but healthcare I suspect will come back relatively soon. Hospitality is screwed. |
Anonymous
It depends. If you are a pure litigator, you really aren’t that qualified to do the counseling side as they are very different skill sets. I would expect the litigation to heat up at some point, but it will be hard to prove that layoffs were X protected class related, when it will be easy to point to the pandemic. |
Anonymous
| at the end of the day, here is the problem for biglaw: you can bill thousands of hours, but the issue is going to be getting paid for those hours. this is probably why biglaw firms are jumping the gun and doing cuts immediately. they know the money is going to stop coming in very soon. |
Anonymous
| Bye-bye of counsels, staff counsels, struggling associates.... |
Anonymous
OP here. at my firm, the employment people do both. i suppose they call people in from the litigation group from time to time (who definitely aren't qualified to give advice) in certain cases. lol at biglaw litigation in general. we in the traditional labor subgroup (or whatever one properly calls it) have more "courtroom" experience than most of the litigators at my firm because we try cases all the time before the NLRB, as well as arbitrations (although those can get awfully informal and start not to resemble a court proceeding). |
Anonymous
| I was a first year in 2001, there was a recession right after 9/11 and lots of law firm layoffs. There was just no work to give the new associates. They cut the junior associates and the expensive “of counsel” first. If you start billing less than 160/month regularly you will know you are in their radar to get axed. |