The Shark

not with a bang, but with a whimper: 2009 associate bonus season.

[cynthia]

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog is reporting that associate bonus season has been opened by Cravath. While the announcement is positive in one way (there are going to be bonuses this year!), the numbers truly pale in comparison to last year's.

First years (class of 2008) will receive $7,500. Second years (class of 2007) will receive $10,000. By contrast, when the class of 2007 were all a bunch of first years, they got $35,000. Let's all take a moment to reflect on the difference 365 days can make.

your profs suffer the economy's wrath right along with you, and some of them would prefer layoffs to pay cuts

[petra]

With pay cuts on the way, most University of California law professors won’t be happy puppies come fall.

But to hear two law deans tell it, students will hardly notice a thing (unless, we’re guessing, the professor ranks start thinning).

The UC Regents voted today to endorse UC President Mark Yudof’s proposal to cut all UC staff and faculty salaries by 4 to 10 percent and force them to take furlough days for the next academic year.

Two Boalt faculty have said that smart organizations choose layoffs over across-the-board pay cuts. Robert Cooter and Aaron Edlin propose in an L.A. Times opinion piece today that layoffs can help a bloated organization get rid of deadwood, while salary cuts encourage the best to leave.

Dean Michael Schill at UCLA's law school admits that no one is excited about these developments. Most of its professors will see a reduction in their pay ranging from 8 percent to 9 percent. According to tables from the UC finance committee, salaries in that range fall between $90,000 and $240,000. [Salary tables can be viewed here (.pdf)]

Asked whether he worried this will make some bolt to better-paying jobs, Schill said he’ll do whatever it takes to hang on to professors and attract new ones. “They know that I’m committed to competitive salaries,” he said. “I am committed that this will just be a blip.”

As the entire UC system deals with an $813 million hole in state funding, Schill and Boalt Dean Chris Edley maintain that students' services and programs will be spared.

Both say alumni have stepped up. Schill said UCLA law has just wrapped up its second most successful fundraising year. “Alumni understand that the only way we will be competitive with our peer institutions will be through philanthropy,” he said.

Edley says Boalt’s also in better shape than other Berkeley schools because the school’s in the fourth year of raising tuition to be closer to market.

“Our $120 million construction project, with no state support, continues apace, but in other respects we are tightening our belts in ways that will protect the student experience and sustain our competitiveness,” Edley wrote in an e-mail yesterday. “This is tough, but not frightening.”

Petra Pasternak is a Cal Law reporter.

biglaw: the new law school. vocational training in exchange for pay cuts hits orrick.

[cynthia]

Orrick is taging a page out of Howrey's book! No more lockstep.

According to our sister blog, Legal Pad, Orrick has just released an announcement of changes to its associates' pay structures, along with plans to implement more training for associates on tracks that don't resemble the traditional partner track. 

Orrick calls this a "revolutionary change" in "lawyer development" and client services. Not sure about all that first one, but the r-word is probably pretty attractive in itchy client times like these.

From the release:

"The traditional associate lockstep staffing and compensation model is based upon out-dated assumptions," said Laura Saklad, Orrick's Chief Lawyer Development Officer. "Our new Talent Model recognizes that not all associates advance at the same pace, tenure is not a proxy for advancing skill, and clients should not bear the cost of training associates. In the end, our goal is to deploy the right lawyer or professional for the right task at the right cost. "

As Amanda notes in the Legal Pad item, this announcement comes on the heels of a survery of in-house departments that incdicates that people perceive law firms to be uninterested in change.

The full release from Orrick can be found after the jump.

MoFo: "errr, we'll figure out that pesky payrate issue later!"

[cynthia]

Morrison & Foerster has announced that, in addition to pushing back start dates to April of 2010, they really have no idea what they'll be paying those first years, either. From their statement, which we found at Above the Law:

"Additionally, I want to let you know that we are reviewing market data regarding starting salaries. We will contact you closer to your starting date to confirm starting salaries. We will provide an updated offer letter, along with an updated handbook, at that time."

Call me a cynic, but why do I get the feeling they're waiting for another firm to lower salaries below what they want to pay, so they're not among the cheapest firms on the market?

ATL also points out that MoFo is historically slow in the decision-making process. After announcing it was planning to defer start dates, it took MoFo three months and some change to come down with an exact start date, leaving 3Ls hanging in the meantime.

Berkeley Law comes out with its list of helpful whatnots for students and alums in a financial pickle this year

[petra pasternak]

Berkeley Law may not be the first school to roll out help for its financially strapped students and grads, but it is thorough.

Last Friday, Dean Chris Edley sent a memo to Boalties describing a bunch of measures the school is working on to alleviate some of the pressures that students and recent grads have been straining under.

Though the help may be more meaningful to younger students, there’s a bit of something for people in various stages of their careers.

Details, and link to the memo, after the jump.

how to stay sane while employed. it's probably harder than you think.

[brian lauter]

There’s plenty of advice out there on how to get a job, but once, you have the job, how do keep it and your sanity?

The Complete Lawyer’s most recent issue is dedicated to answering this question in the near and distant future. The issue delves into several subjects that might be of interest to 3Ls with offers and maybe even very forward-thinking 2Ls and 1Ls.

Several of the articles offer interesting approaches to success as an associate. For instance, Susan Cartier Liebel, of the Build a Solo Practice, LLC blog, contributes an article discussing strategies associates can learn from solo practitioners.

An article, titled Five Strategies to Set the Pace for Associate Success and written by a real life wealth manager, also appears in this issue, and it spoke to some issues raised by my experience this past summer. A few weeks ago I was talking with a few friends about the financial advice we got from older attorneys this summer. I was surprised by the range of advice I’d received, and my friends felt the same way. Some attorneys told us to enjoy our young lives and not worry about saving, others told us to save every penny. This article imparts some well-reasoned and practical strategies that are a lot more helpful than most of the advice my friends and I received.

For those looking way way down the road, there’s even an article about when its appropriate to ask your parents to relocate due to old age (including advice about what to do if they don’t want to). 

There’s a lot of interesting stuff in this issue, and its not just the same old advice.

big firms, big money. are you ready for this?

[cynthia foster]

For those of you who are, um, interested in how much money you stand to make as a future attorney in California, Cal Law brings you an extensive look at how much money California firms made in 2007.  The breakdowns of wealth (according to revenues and profits) are pretty astounding — much like in the rest of the world, the rich got richer last year, as the less rich maintained the status quo.

Handy charts etc. to help you visualize the dollar signs.  (Free) registration required.

linx

[abony holmes & cynthia foster]

It was a happenin' weekend on the internet:

• February 25, 2008, 12:40 pm Survey Says: Promise of Money Drives People to Law School (WSJ's Law Blog)
• Patent Reform Update Presented at Stanford Law School (The United States Blog/Promote Progress)
• Hastings Law Students Look to Stay Ahead of the Grading Curve (Law.com)
• Survivor Winner Yul Kwon Speaks About Law School in S.F. (SFist)
• Battlestar Galactica Interview (Concurring Opinions — the law and politics of Battlestar Galatica, go geek out)
• Market Jitters: Bad for Investors, But Good for Law Students? (WSJ's Law Blog)
• 'Serendipity' Plays Role in Yale Law School Admissions (Yale Daily News)
• Nader Criticizes Corporate Influence at Law Schools (The Record, the independent newspaper at Harvard Law School)

linx

[cynthia foster]

Foursies:

• Associate Compensation: The Law School-Law Firm Link (ALM Research Online)
• Legally Asian! Event for Aspiring Attorneys (hapihour.org — San Francisco event)
• How Sticky Is Membership on Facebook?  Just Try Breaking Free (NYTimes)
• Skadden Kills Blog's "Hot Associate" Contest (Legal Pad)

start budgeting now: average first year salaries

[abony holmes]

This morning, Law Librarian Blog reported on a National Jurist study that ranks average starting salaries by law schools. I try not to get too wrapped up in this kind of information, as I firmly believe there is more to life than my law school’s average starting salary. And anyway, my school’s average starting salaries does not guarantee my starting salary.

However, I am only human.  It’s good to know that Boalt is tied at the top with 125k.

Here's how other California Law Schools stacked up*:

Boalt	$125k
USC	$125k
UCLA	$102,120k
Santa Clara	$96,956k
Hastings	$95,891k
Davis	$91,864k
Loyola	$86,451k
USF	$83k
Southwestern	$82,500k
Pepperdine	$80k
UC San Diego	$74k
Pacific McGeorge	$67,935k
Whittier	$65k
Chapman	$55,892k

*Stanford is suspiciously absent from this list.  Maybe it really isn't part of California anymore?