Even as the Boston-based firm bumps associate salaries nationwide, it seems to be enticing some associates to leave
While Bingham McCutchen is now paying top dollar to hold on to associates at its offices across the country, in San Francisco the firm seems to be paying top dollar so some of them will leave.
Several mid-level and senior litigation associates have taken a buyout deal from the 1,000-lawyer, Boston-based firm, according to multiple sources inside and outside the firm. Four attorneys recently left the firm, and three traded in their full-time associate status for the part-time title of contract attorney, those sources say.
On Tuesday, the firm raised associate salaries in all offices to the $160,000 scale, following crowds of other large firms that have done the same.
Anthony Carbone, chair of the firm's committee on associates, described the personnel moves in San Francisco as "mutually agreeable transitions" initiated by associates based on their individual situations -- not layoffs initiated by the firm.
This makes me sad. I worked at McCutchen Doyle Brown & Enersen in San Francisco for several years before leaving in 2000. (That was long before the merger that created Bingham McCutchen.) I loved that firm and the people there. I have no desire to trash them, but things don't seem to be going well for the San Francisco office since the merger.