Last week we published a story in which we quoted AAR spokesperson Susan Ferrier as saying that there would not be an “exodus” of lawyer in 2010 because there are few job opportunities available.

In response to that post, we received the following embittered comments from an anonymous AAR spy:

Susan Ferrier has no idea. Lawyer morale at Allens is at a critical low, people will flood to Freehills who are keenly making the most of this opportunity already. Freehills has positioned itself as the least tight of the top tiers of late. You can’t expect to institute the pay freeze first, be the last to unfreeze, make everyone take annual leave over the christmas break with only half a day on Christmas Eve as bonus leave (Mallesons aren’t even this tight), reveal potential dramatic remuneration restructure in Business Spectator article and continue to brag and strut about exceptional performance and client satisfaction, without fallout. A June/July pay review will be too little too late…but then again what do we expect from HR?

How is morale at your firm? Are you the first to know about major news at your firm, or do journalists/newspapers get the scoop first?

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AAR partner Paul Quinn uttered in his Business Spectator column earlier this week that junior lawyers should be remunerated based on performance. As reported by our friends at ALB:

associate salaries have remained on a lockstep structure … and “none of the arguments, in my view, present a compelling case to rule out performance based remuneration for lawyers …  a strong and transparent performance culture is a good thing”.

We can think of a good reason Paul; for example when your firm does not have a “transparent performance culture” and young lawyers do not possess a “champion”.

Late last year an anonymous AAR spy wrote us the following

…Allens Arthur Robinson’smanagement are aware that legal salaries across all levels are below market rate (although this has not been acknowledged or communicated to staff). At some levels, the discrepancy is as much as 20% below market rate. Salary compression at junior levels is also critical. “Thawing the salary freeze” offers the opportunity for the firm to consider a revision of its approach to remuneration. This may result in changes to the calibrated lock-step system currently in place. After the introduction of a forced-rank distribution sytem for performance reviews in 2009, the firm “successfully achieved its distribution curve”. (ie the firm reduced the number of staff achieving an “exceptional” or “very strong” rating and increased the number of staff who received a “strong” or “underperforming” grade). Some partners complained that they felt compelled to impose a grade on staff they did not agree with. Lawyers complained about flaws within the calibration system itself, including the fact that lawyers might be disadvantaged if they did not have someone to “champion” them during the calibration process (ie if they do not work directly with a high-ranking partner).

What do you think is fairest? A performance-based salary where lawyers are open to being dodged by partners, or the current lock-step model?

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We received a few replies to our call yesterday for news on the way firms are handling the Christmas shut-down. In essence, we were hoping to find out if any firms were using the opportunity - a traditional down time in the calendar - to force staff to take unused annual leave.

Surprise surprise - notorious tightwads AAR are rumoured to have implemented a very tight scheme in which staff will lose almost half of their annual leave entitlements. This from an anonymous AAR spy last night:

put your annual leave in the bag, b*tch!

Re: your story on involuntary leave- Allens is closing Christmas Eve this year and re-opening on the 11th. All staff forced to take leave unless they have the approval of their section head to work during the office closure. No extra leave is given to compensate for this, so you’ve lost 8 of your 20 annual leave days for the year as the firm shifts the burden of a traditionally quiet period onto its staff (and justifies it by saying “the firm believes it is important for staff to spend this time with their families”). Interestingly, last year we re-opened a week earlier…

No doubt our best mate, AAR spokesperson Chris Fogarty, was behind the “spend time with your families” rigmarole.

Meanwhile, it appears Mallesons have finally gotten into the festive cheer by actually giving staff some extra leave. We received the following from an anonymous Mallesons spy yesterday:

Mallesons is closing on Christmas eve and will not officially reopen until 11 January. All told, staff are forced to spend 5 days of annual leave, but will receive 3.5 days of annual leave for free. If people have urgent work, they will not be required to take those 5 days, but this is subject to partner approval… I think everyone is pretty happy with the arrangement. Let’s call it a very minor solace for the sh*t that everyone has been through this year and for the almost laughable “bonus” we received.

We’re happy to call it a ” very minor solace”, but better than nothing!

What is your firm doing? Let us know - send the Firm Spy your news and views!

The Firm Spy takes some credit from the recent revelation that AAR will this year be indulging staff with a Christmas Party! We counted no less than 5 articles (including the very popular Firm Spy Downlow Medal post) in which the Firm Spy has lambasted the firm for the irresponsible decision to shelve last year’s festivities, only for staff to see partners pocket up to a reported $1,400,000 last year.

An excellent article from our friends at Lawyers Weekly noted that AAR’s party plans:

… are shrouded in a cloak of mystery, a spokesperson saying only that “there are a number of themes that have been dreamt up in smoky backrooms, some of which apparently are yet to be revealed”. The spokesperson did, however, confirm that an ‘80’s theme was on the cards for one office.

However, it is not all tea and buscuits this year, and there was certainly no coffees in this “smoky backroom” with news that a discretionary spend has been axed by the firm’s Melbourne office. This from an anonymous AAR spy yesterday:

Allens Arthur Robinson has just cancelled the ‘coffee cart’ service in their Melbourne office. The partnership hosted morning tea on Monday to farewell the beloved service. Partner Paul Quinn made reference to the long service provided by the coffee cart, apparently it has been operating since the 1960s. Allens staff will be making their own morning coffee from now on. Staff were also offered the ‘opportunity’ to buy an environmentally friendly coffee cup for $5, complete with Allens branding (with $5 being contributed by the Allens Footprint Committee - staff had a 50% discount!)… very generous offer!

Ahhh … the old trick of cutting costs and framing it as an effort to cut carbon emissions. Anyone recall when Deacons forced staff to crap in the dark? And what’s this business about an AAR branded coffee-cup? It sounds very familiar: Minter Ellison apparently introduced an identical scheme (though free of charge) in its Sydney office mere weeks ago!

Is your firm cutting costs? Send the Firm Spy your news and views!

The target billable hours published for Allens Arthur Robinson are wrong. Accurate targets are: Law Graduate (unadmitted, equivalent of articled clerk or UK trainee): 4.5 hours ($67k incl superannuation) 1st year Lawyer: 6.1 hours (approx $68K includig superannuation) 2+ Lawyer: 6.5 hours (approx $78K+ including superannuation) Senior Associate: 7.5 hours (approx minimum $120K+ including superannuation) Allens Arthur Robinson’s management are aware that legal salaries across all levels are below market rate (although this has not been acknowledged or communicated to staff). At some levels, the discrepancy is as much as 20% below market rate. Salary compression at junior levels is also critical. “Thawing the salary freeze” offers the opportunity for the firm to consider a revision of its approach to remuneration. This may result in changes to the calibrated lock-step system currently in place. After the introduction of a forced-rank distribution sytem for performance reviews in 2009, the firm “successfully achieved its distribution curve”. (ie the firm reduced the number of staff achieving an “exceptional” or “very strong” rating and increased the number of staff who received a “strong” or “underperforming” grade). Some partners complained that they felt compelled to impose a grade on staff they did not agree with. Lawyers complained about flaws within the calibration system itself, including the fact that lawyers might be disadvantaged if they did not have someone to “champion” them during the calibration process (ie if they do not work directly with a high-ranking partner).

At the beginning of the year, there was an awful lot of press around very significant cuts in numbers at law firms around the world… So there was a high degree of anxiety among lawyers at the end of last year and beginning of this year. What was pleasing for me was our approach of frank communication and letting people know what was going on. I think it dealt with that anxiety and helped people understand the environment and feel more confident about what was going to happen next.

My sense is that there is a large degree of frustration now.

Are you frustrated? Send the Firm Spy your news and views!

Following our very popular reports into the remuneration of lawyers at:

STOP ALLENS ARTHUR HIGHWAY ROBBERY!

• Mallesons;
• Freehills; and
• Minter Ellison

we today move onto the salaries paid to lawyers at Allens Arthur Robinson. Allens reported the fifth highest revenue of any Australian law firm in 2008/2009 with $415,000,000.00. Top partners apparently earned an incredible $1,400,000.00 over the same period. Chief executive partner Michael Rose nevertheless recently had the cheek to say:

It is our sense that activity across the market as a whole is down. We would expect that things will stay relatively flat or decline further over the next 12 months.

This is how Mick and the team at Allens Arthur Highway Robbery Robinson reportedly remunerate their staff:

Firm Spy cannot confirm these statistics. They come from anonymous sources.

Perth

Paralegal

Not admitted. Daily billable target - 3 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - $42,000. Gross package 2009/2010 - $44,850. Perks - free gym; free fruit.

0-1 Years PQE

Admitted between July 2008 and June 2009. Daily billable target - 3.5 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - not entered. Gross package 2009/2010 - $65,000. Perks - free gym; free fruit; purchase additional leave; subsidised further education.

1-2 Years PQE

Admitted between July 2007 and June 2008. Daily billable target - 5 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - $68,000. Gross package 2009/2010 $68,000. Perks - free gym; free fruit; purchase additional leave; subsidised further education. Comments:

Allens RPs making less than $2k more than the grads!

2-3 Years PQE

Admitted between July 2006 and June 2007. Daily billable target - 6.5 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - $76,000. Gross package 2009/2010 $76,000. Perks - free gym; free fruit; purchase additional leave; subsidised further education. Comments:

Allens seems to be overflowing with eccentric, maladjusted partners. My friends at other top tiers seem to have far fewer than us. In fact, the greater the personality disorder, the greater the chance of promotion.

Melbourne

Graduate

Admitted after July 2009. Daily billable target - 4.5 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - $63,000. Gross package 2009/2010 $63,000. Perks - free gym; free fruit; purchase additional leave; subsidised further education. Comments:

Free gym isn’t much of a “perk” - it is a disgusting, crowded cess pit.

2-3 Years PQE

Admitted between July 2006 and June 2007. Daily billable target - 7 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - $69,000. Gross package 2009/2010 $69,000. Perks - free gym; free fruit; purchase additional leave; subsidised further education. Comments

Salary freeze and talking crap about “staying close to clients in tough times”, but still increasing my charge-out rate to them to $350 an hour. Also a bonus system that is only aimed at increasing partner profits to a level that is more competitive with Mallesons and Clayton Utz partners.

6-7 Years PQE

Admitted between July 2002 and June 2003. Daily billable target - 7.5 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - $202,000. Gross package 2009/2010 - $202,000. Perks - free gym; free fruit; purchase additional leave; subsidised further education; blackberry.

Sydney

0-1 Years PQE

Admitted between July 2008 and June 2009. Daily billable target - 6 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - $70,000. Gross package 2009/2010 $70,000. Perks - free gym; free fruit; purchase additional leave; subsidised further education.

3-4 Years PQE

Admitted between July2005  and June 2006. Daily billable target - 6.5 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - $93,000. Gross package 2009/2010 $93,000. Perks - free gym; free fruit; purchase additional leave; subsidised further education; blackberry. Comments:

Ambivalent. Salary levels are awful. My charge our rate has increased $90 per hour but my salary has not. I am now a 3-4 year lawyer on a 2-3 year salary and I am busy! An AAR lawyer in 2008 was effectively paid more than those in 2009.

5-6 Years PQE

Admitted between July 2003 and June 2004. Daily billable target - 8.5 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - $145,000. Gross package 2009/2010 - n/a. Perks - free gym; free fruit; purchase additional leave; subsidised further education; mobil phone.

Brisbane

0-1 Years PQE

Admitted between July 2008 and June 2009. Daily billable target - 6 hours. Gross package 2008/2009 - $63,000. Gross package 2009/2010 $63,000. Perks - free gym; free fruit; purchase additional leave; subsidised further education. Comments:

Sad - graduates are paid almost exactly the same as first year lawyers.

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An incredible story out of AAR today. Former Allens Lawyer, Marianna Leishman, has swapped a legal career for politics, albeit for the Australian Sex Party.

As reported by our good friends at Lawyers Weekly:

The race for Dr Brendan Nelson’s former seat has heated up, with Marianna Leishman - former Allens lawyer-turned-pole-dancer and Australian Sex Party (ASP) candidate - announcing she will swap the law - and the stage - for politics.  Leishman will run for the Bradfield seat at the election in December under the assumed name of Zarha Stardust. The 26-year-old made the announcement at the Erotic Film Festival last week, saying she believes it’s time the traditionally conservative seat of Bradfield, situated on Sydney’s North Shore, entered the modern era.  Leishman started her career at Allens as a paralegal in 2005. According to a spokesperson at the firm, she worked in a variety of areas, but most recently as a graduate lawyer in the intellectual property team. The spokesperson said that Leishman informed the firm last month that she would be leaving to pursue other interests.  Leishman appears to have made some impressive contributions to the law during her relatively short career. She is pictured and quoted on the Allens Arthur Robinson website, following her travelling clerk project that she undertook at the Native Title Representative Body. She has also interned at the United Nations Population Fund, campaigned with Amnesty International and Oxfam Australia, and has worked at the Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre. Leishman has her own website, though the site may not necessarily be to the taste of most legal offices. 

Meanwhile, the ASP describes Leishman as a feminist writer, a human rights advocate, a burlesque dancer and trapeze artist, with an ASP statement introducing her as a “strong, Generation Y woman who believes in changing the world from upside down and using the stage as a space to talk about social injustice”.

Leishman has declared her political platform for the area of Bradfield, announcing that she is pushing to restore the “imbalance” of the electorate’s policy objectives, while also ensuring that the rights of women and youth in the area are fully represented.

“In an area that claims 50 years of conservative representation from white, heterosexual, able-bodied, suited, male protagonists, the ASP is excited to provide a modern, outward-looking female candidate with social justice credentials to restore a historical imbalance in the electorate’s policy focus,” she said. She added that she is concerned that abortion still remains illegal for Bradfield women, and that she is also determined to stamp out discrimination in the area experienced by residents due to the nature of their work.  Meanwhile, Leishman is also pushing for the Federal Government to legalise gay marriage and ensure that the rights of the gay and lesbian population are being assured.  According to the statement, Leishman has degrees in Law, Arts and a Masters in Gender and Cultural Studies. She has also been a finalist in numerous competitions, including Most Unique Entertainer at the Miss Nude NSW contest in 2009 and in the Miss Pole Dance Australia competition of 2008. The election takes place on December 5. Labor will not contest the seat.

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In an excellent article in today’s Australian profiling the likely exodus from law firms in the new year - owing to long hours for low, frozen pay while fat cat partners laugh all the way to the bank - the following is written:

Susan Ferrier, director of people and development at Allens Arthur Robinson — which has a pay freeze — said the firm wanted to avoid quickly changing policies on recruitment in case the latest signs of improvement were a “false economic dawn”.  “Post-Christmas I think many professional services organisations will have a clearer picture of where things are going in the economy,” she said.

The Firm Spy has profiled, and commented upon, a wide array of wanker corporate idioms, but “false economic dawn” is a new one and a particularly offensive way, we think, of saying:

the AAR partners dont want to spend a cent more than they are required  to.

Does this mean Allens Arthur Robinson lawyers have just awoken to the remuneration Dawn of the Dead? We think so. It is remarkable how quick the partnership was prepared to act when profits were thrown in to jeopardy when considering the extremely conservative approach it appears to be taking to responding to the economic up-tick.

Is it time for AAR to stop selling the drama?

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It came as news to us that national top-tier firm Allens Arthur Robinson recently offered staff a 4-day working week.

or 4 days clean?

As reported in the current BRW:

Allens Arthur Robinson managing partner Michael Rose concedes that 115 staff members… left the firm as part of the voluntary redundancy program. But there is no plans for further cuts. “We had about 5% of staff take up a four-day week, and anyone who accrued annual leave of more than a year we encouraged them to take it,” he says. ‘We haven’t mandated anyone to go on a four-day week.”

With rumours circulating that AAR was recently poised to make further cuts to headcount, the Firm Spy applauds any initiative that Allens can use to save jobs. Of course, there is always the concern that a four-day-per-week worker must fit five days worth of work into four. Let the Firm Spy know first if the 4-day week is just a ruse to save the Allens partnership 20% in lawyer pay.

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When you’ve got a Firm Spy Downlow Medal swinging around your neck, you need to quickly make comments in the media to allay employee fears of a partnership rip off.

And so, it is no surprise that we read comments from Allens Arthur Robinson chief executive partner Michael Rose in ALB which very much sells the drama of the GFC, necessitating the excrutiatingly tight partnership antics already witnessed:

It is our sense that activity across the market as a whole is down. We would expect that things will stay relatively flat or decline further over the next 12 months.

So Mike, does this mean the pay freeze is here to stay? This expectation that things will “stay relatively flat” is difficult to stomach given that AAR is widely rumoured to have out-performed rivals since the GFC began.

Surely it must be difficult to resist the temptation to talk about figures if Allens is outperforming its rivals? ‘I’m resisting it now’, Rose says firmly.

When Rose is asked to put a figure on revenue, his normally amiable face becomes stern … “that’s the private information of the partners who own the business and we don’t think it’s something … to talk about. Our clients don’t want to read about how much money we’re making.’

Well, certainly the employees working their fingers to the bone yet presently subject to a pay freeze and subject to ‘cheap shots down low’ are eager to know.  But of course, Mike can relate to their pain:

His very first job was working as a cleaner in a swimming centre, for the princely consideration of $3.50 an hour. ‘It was a rip-off, even back then,’ he laughs.

Are you being ripped off?

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