Pay Scale Raises

Anyone else see this article? Can anyone comment on whether these firms are increasing senior associates' pay and if so, by how much?

Firms Reject Raising Associate Pay


New York Lawyer
May 12, 2003

By Carlos Harrison
Miami Daily Business Review

When Greenberg Traurig and Carlton Fields recently announced they had modestly raised salaries for entry-level associates in their South Florida offices, eyebrows went up at other firms here.

But not salaries.

In a national economy that continues to hobble along, large South Florida law offices, rather than raising pay, are intensifying their scrutiny of associate performance, demanding profitability from new lawyers sooner, and taking advantage of a buyer’s job market to fill their rosters with their pick of top candidates, law firm leaders say.

Edwin Torres, hiring partner at Steel Hector & Davis, said his 200-lawyer firm saw an increase in attorney productivity that paid for the salary increases it gave its 80 associates in 2000. But now, it’s keeping entry-level compensation steady at $90,000 in base pay and a $15,000 bonus, plus a discretionary bonus above that.

At Hollywood-based Becker & Poliakoff, with 105 lawyers statewide, hiring partner Alan Becker said entry-level base salaries for associates, which shot up nearly 25 percent in 2000, have “receded” about 10 percent to the mid-70s. “You’re not going to make money on a first-year associate anyway,” Becker said. “So it’s a matter of how much you’re willing to lose.”

Mike Segal, managing partner of Broad and Cassel’s Miami office, said that his office started a new system last year under which associates, to be eligible for discretionary bonuses, have to show a certain amount of collection from their work. Associates are expected to prod the partners for whom they work to make sure bills are going out and being paid promptly.

Experts say it’s all part of heightened pay and performance pressure on young lawyers at major law firms across the country. “Associates have to be more productive earlier in their careers in order to economically justify their existence,” said Ward Bower, a principal at the consulting firm Altman Weil Inc. of Newtown, Pa. “Evaluations are more stringent and firms are quicker to pull the trigger.”

That’s why some managing partners found the associate pay increases at Greenberg Traurig and Carlton Fields so startling, though there were special circumstances behind the moves at the two firms. As one managing partner bluntly put it: “They’re out of their f——-g minds.”