Proskauer finally tells associates how many hours they have to bill to get bonuses.
The post Biglaw Firm Learning The Hard Way It’s Best To Be Straightforward With Associates appeared first on Above the Law.
When last we checked in with Proskauer they were doing associates dirty. Despite not formally having an hours requirement to receive year-end bonuses, some associates found themselves with nothing but coal in their stocking from the firm. Why didn’t they get the cash they were expecting? Well, they didn’t meet the hours requirement — by as little as 3 hours! You know, that hours requirement that doesn’t formally exist… (According to tipsters, this year isn’t the first time the firm pulled this particular move.)
Now some insiders are reporting back what’s been going down since the story broke. Unsurprisingly morale is not great — even associate that made the invisible hours threshold last year feel blindsided by the firm’s policy. And the firm leadership has been forced by the negative publicity to acknowledge the standard they’ve been holding associates to.
From a tipster:
After your article was posted, literally 9 minutes later, we received an email for a virtual town hall to take place the next day at noon. Now we have a 2000 hour requirement for the current fiscal year… which started in November.
They say it can change from year to year but they will tell us ahead of time (yeah right, we’re not going to believe that shit anymore)
It’s vile and I can’t wait to leave this firm. Hope they enjoy the millions they make from squeezing every last ounce of humanity from the firm that used to be a good place to work. Morale is very very low. Would not be surprised if they start hemorrhaging associates. Maybe that’s their intention.
Oof, doesn’t sound like Proskauer is a fun place to work right now. Maybe they’ll take the hint and start being straightforward with associates.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter
