Skaddenfreude

You should be prepared to explain -- first to yourself, and then to others -- WHY you earn what you do.

Today, we take an inside look at the annual review process for attorneys at Skadden Arps. In this special report, we'll provide general observations on the Skadden review process, highlight noteworthy comments from leaked attorney evaluations, and show you a few reviews in their entirety. If you're interested in learning more about performance reviews at one of the world's biggest and best law firms, please keep reading....

Late last week, word started to leak out that Skadden Arps plans to close its San Francisco office, by the end of June 2011. A meeting was held on Friday where the closure was announced to the office. The S.F. office is essentially being folded into the firm’s Silicon Valley outpost. Some of the initial […]

Bonuses have just been announced at Skadden. The following memo went out earlier today to all Skadden partners, from executive partner Eric Friedman: To All Partners: The attached memo announcing a year end discretionary bonus will be sent to associates in North America on a class by class basis today. Bonuses will range from $7,500 […]

We call it Skaddenfreude: taking pleasure in the misfortune of others who work at large law firms. Today’s tale of Skaddenfreude involves a contract attorney working a project in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis. Let’s kick it off with a picture….

Nixon Peabody was a winner in Signature Flight Support Corp. v. Landow Aviation, a dispute between two aviation companies at the Washington Dulles airport. Nixon landed a victory for Signature Flight, and filed a motion for Landow to pay attorneys’ fees in the case. Landow thought Nixon’s fees were sky-high and opposed the motion, resulting […]

Every sports fan we know is bugging us to cover the prosecution of Karen Sypher, a former car-show model and auto-glass saleswoman, who is being tried for extorting University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino, lying to the FBI, and retaliation against a witness. Since it concerns balls, it seems like a natural fit for […]

In my day (circa 2003), to be discouraged from going to law school, you had to make the effort to apply to a Biglaw firm for a paralegal job. After a year or two of working with disgruntled corporate lawyers, there was a good chance that your desire to become one of them would wither […]

MTV has sunk low. Really low. Its newest program, Downtown Girls — a reality TV show about a group of hot girls living in TriBeCa — is using the New York bar exam as a dramatic narrative hook. We wrote before about the law grad on the show in our post: Why Unemployed Lawyers Shouldn’t […]

Earlier this week, we published a Lawyerly Lairs post about a graduating 3L named Jimmy. According to the blog Urban Turf, “Jimmy” is a 27-year-old law student with a job in D.C. Biglaw lined up, starting at $160,000. If that’s not enough to make you hate Jimmy, he also has a credit score of 781, […]

When plotting the escape from Biglaw, many associates set their sights on entertainment law. In their Hollywood dreaming, they imagine mingling with the hottest actors, actresses and producers as they write up contracts and negotiate movie and music deals. We know that many a recruiter is dangling this prospect in front of desperate young lawyers […]

At the beginning of 2009, we were tracking salary freezes as law firms across the country froze their salaries at 2008 levels, rather than instituting lockstep raises based on seniority. Our most recent salary freeze round-up was in February. (We also acknowledged those that had raises as normal.) Since then though, the salary freeze watch […]

The dreaded swine flu, aka the H1N1 virus, made it to Mayer Brown last week. Will it now work its way up the Am Law 100? This afternoon, via Fashionista (last paragraph), we learned that swine flu has hit the hallowed halls of Vogue. And we all know who shares a fancy building with Vogue […]

When we reported on the salary cuts at Nixon Peabody, we mentioned that the firm would allow associates to make up some of the money come bonus time. Here’s how the firm explained the opportunity: With our new levels of base pay in place, we will be introducing a bonus program that offers the potential […]

Another month, another round of freeze announcements. Here are the latest firms to announce the withholding of class year raises in 2009: Baker & McKenzie (“Slurpee” freeze– will be revisited on June 30) Cooley Godward Patton Boggs Seyfarth Shaw Jenner & Block is not freezing salaries, but it is giving smaller raises to New York […]

Individualized memos have been issued to Skadden Arps associates to inform them of their 2008 bonuses and 2009 base salaries. The Skadden base salaries reflect the customary annual pay raises — sorry, Lathamites. Because Skadden’s announced bonuses this year are so much higher than the Cravath-established market level, folks at other firms have wondered: Are […]

Maybe Latham & Watkins was never into this whole “____ to $160K” thing to begin with. When Latham finally raised salaries across the board back in May 2007, we reported: Well, it appears that Latham has been shamed into giving into the “hysteria” surrounding associate comp. As we’ve discussed, Latham’s associate salary freeze essentially cancels […]

If you liked your 2008 salary, you’re going to love your 2009 salary. Latham & Watkins just sent around this email about 2009 associate compensation: The world economy is experiencing unforeseen and unprecedented dislocations. Our clients are feeling those impacts and the legal community is not immune. The Executive Committee has spent the last few […]

I think I speak for many ATL readers and Biglaw followers when I ask: when the heck is S&C going to announce its 2008 associate bonuses? Because the delay is getting ridiculous. It’s December 15th. All of S&C’s peer New York firms have announced already, except for Weil — and historically speaking we can’t expect […]

Debevoise & Plimpton has been very busy and very profitable. They recently sent around a positive internal email about the firm’s business during the downturn. And we know that the Siemens case has treated them well. But in 2008, public protestations of solid business mean nothing when it comes to associate compensation. Debevoise announced that […]