September 20, 2007  

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ALA Currents is a free newsletter about law firm management trends and innovations provided exclusively upon request to members of the Association of Legal Administrators.

News & Views

ASSOCIATE SALARIES RISING RAPIDLY IN LARGE FIRMS

According to the 2007 Associate Salary Survey just released by NALP, The Association of Legal Career Professionals, the median first-year associate salary at firms with 501 or more lawyers increased to $145,000 as of April 1, 2007, an increase of $10,000 in only one year. Meanwhile, many firms reported first-year associate salaries as high as $160,000. At small firms – those with 25 or fewer lawyers – the median was essentially unchanged at $68,000, compared with $67,000 in 2006. The median starting salary for firms of all sizes was $113,000 – up modestly from the 2006 median of $105,000, and driven mostly by growth at the high end of the scale.

As expected, each year of associate experience brings several thousand dollars in increased compensation: median salaries for eighth-year associates ranged from $117,000 in small firms to $204,000 in the largest firms, with a median of $157,000 for all reporting firms.

The 2007 Associate Salary Survey also gathered data on salaries for intellectual property (IP) lawyers and general data on salary levels for staff attorneys and law clerks. Though information on salaries for intellectual property attorneys was more limited, it suggests that, at least in large firms in major markets, IP lawyers command salaries that are $15,000 to $25,000 higher, with the larger differentials among more senior associates. Meanwhile, salaries for staff attorneys are typically $98,000 per year, while the median hourly salaries for law clerks range from $24 to $50 per hour depending on firm size.

The survey also reports on bonus systems at participating firms and the prevalence and size of bonuses for prior judicial clerks. Among the findings: about 70 percent of firms use discretion as a factor to determine eligibility for bonuses. About 60 percent use “meeting fixed goals” as a determinant of eligibility, although firms of 101-250 lawyers and 251-500 lawyers are most likely to do so – 67 percent and 77 percent, respectively. Bonus amounts were based on various factors, the most common of which were billable hours, merit, and discretion.

More detailed results by city and region – including medians, averages, and ranges of base salaries for associates through the eighth year, as well as information on aggregate compensation for associates, and compensation structures – can be found in the complete 2007 Associate Salary Survey, now available at NALP’s Bookstore.

LEGAL CAREER CENTER SITE LAUNCHED

Hudson Legal announced its sponsorship of Monster’s newly launched Legal Career Center, a section of Monster.com devoted to the career advancement and recruitment efforts of attorneys and other legal professionals.

While the site’s content appeals to a broad range of legal professionals, legal administrators may find especially useful tools such as salary trends and hiring outlooks. While Monster previously hosted similar sites for other fields, the Legal Career Center is a new addition to the Career Advice portal.

“With the legal field as hot as ever right now, we recognized the need in the marketplace for savvy professionals to have access to current information around landing a job and getting ahead in their careers,” said Mark Sargent, Director of Content for Monster.

Click here to visit the Legal Career Center.

Management Innovations

FLEXIBILITY INITIATIVES LAND ALA MEMBERS’ FIRMS ON LIST OF BEST LAW FIRMS FOR WOMEN

Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, a consulting firm advising attorneys and legal employers on work-life balance and the retention and advancement of women, recently announced the list of the 2007 Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women. The winning firms are notable for their work/life and women-friendly policies – including flex-time, child care, and women-focused mentoring, leadership, and networking programs – as they set new standards to retain and promote top female legal talent. All but four of the winning firms employ ALA members.

In a profession often distinguished by cut-throat competition, 100-hour work weeks, and few women in top partnership positions, the 2007 Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women firms are redefining standards of success and creating workplaces that encourage the retention and promotion of women. For more than 20 years, women have constituted 40-50 percent of law school graduates, and forward-thinking firms are recognizing that in order to retain and promote the best talent, they need to ensure female lawyers’ success.

“Forget the old stereotypes of law firms as inhospitable to women,” said Suzanne Riss, Editor-in-Chief, Working Mother magazine. “As Working Mother examined the practices of many of the nation’s law firms, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a number have been quietly changing their policies in recent years to reflect changes that are afoot in society as a whole. The 2007 Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women are making women’s issues a priority, and the success of their policies will hopefully become reflected in the number of women, from associates all the way up to partners.”

The winning firms with employed ALA members are:

For complete information about the 2007 Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women – including profiles of the winning firms – visit Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers online.

Caucus Insights

This section features condensed versions of recent discussions in ALA’s Large Firm Administrators Caucus ListServe, which is exclusively for people working in firms with 100 attorneys or more.

THE TOPIC: Law Firms’ Air Travel Policies

Does your firm have a policy regarding class of airline travel for long air flights, especially to international destinations? If so, can you summarize those guidelines or refer us to somebody who has more information?

SELECTED RESPONSES:

1. For flights that are scheduled for at least four hours, the attorney may fly business class on firm business, and business class on flights of any duration for clients only if the client will reimburse the firm.

2. Our policy is essentially as follows: If it is client-billable travel, assume economy unless the client authorizes the lawyer to travel using an alternative class at the client’s expense. If it is firm business, travel is economy class unless the flight is more than five hours in duration or the total travel time in one leg (ground, air, etc. together) exceeds nine hours.

3. Our firm policy is the same as in response number two and ditto on the exceptions. The issue we are having is controlling the “upgrades,” which are more readily available when a full-fare economy class ticket is purchased. The full-fare economy ticket is in most circumstances a lot more expensive than a refundable ticket of the same class of seat. The flexibility and additional cost of a refundable ticket may be warranted in some cases, but not in most. This part is a struggle to enforce.

4. Our policy (and same at my prior firm) is that the traveler must select the least expensive fare available. While this means we may have to eat a good portion of a ticket now and then, in the long run it is less expensive. Our reasoning is that we should minimize firm and client expenses to the greatest degree possible. We actually have clients who request that our lawyers fly first class and are willing to pay for it.

5. For firm business, travel is economy class except for travel to our foreign offices. For every other trip, the traveler may fly business class.

Special Note: ALA members have free access to the ALA Reference Desk. Send questions on legal management to infocentral@alanet.org. Staff will conduct personal research on each question.

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