Are There New Salary Guidelines for In-house Attorneys?
I know you are waiting for my insight into the local rule making process, but I just have to respond to the news about the Mayer Brown Associates sent in-house at a fraction of their former salaries and without any guarantee that they will remain employed. The question is what does that mean for in-house salaries.
These were lawyers who were making $200,000 and are now making $60,000 working for United Air Lines and Fortune Brands just to name a few. Apparently, the deal was worked out as an alternative to unemployment; Mayer Brown has apparently let over 70 lawyers go since last November. When I first took on this role of blogger for ACC one of the topics that it was suggested that I write about was the high salaries of associates’ at large firms. What a change has taken place in a year. Now the topic is how the new low salaries for associates at law firms might be harbingers of things to come in-house.
In house lawyers who expressed concern about outside firm salaries probably never imagined that the solution might have a direct impact on their own salaries, but the implication is hard to miss. Competition is good and I never really believed that the associates deserved the salaries they were making because they could not deliver the value that justified it. The same principle applies to in-house attorneys—time in grade alone does not justify salary increases (remember those things in your remote past).
Today I had a conversation with a long time friend in large firm and he expressed the view that when the economy turns (we both agreed it would be a lot later than are optimistic political leaders) it was not likely that the practice as they new it would return. People would not be willing to pay as they did in the past and delivery of legal services had to be fundamentally rethought.
Those in legal marketing are likely going to have to reinvent themselves as the old shibboleths that defined the kernels their sales pitch may become irrelevant. Who knows, you may even see prices on law firm web sites.
What does it mean for in-house—at the very least it means a lot more people vying for a lot fewer jobs and a level of competition which may well change the culture of the practice.
