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Feb/March 2010 firm newsletter

Albany lawyers import work, not salary structure,

Joel Stashenko of The Business Review New York City's biggest law firms just boosted starting annual pay for first-year associates to $160,000, and the fallout was felt in the payrolls of firms in Boston, Seattle, Chicago and Tampa, Fla. But only 150 miles up the Hudson River, members of the Albany legal community say new lawyers should expect no similar eye-popping pay as they embark on their careers. "The difference between the Albany region and New York City has always been significant in terms of associates' salaries--usually in the range of half," said Dan Ruzow, partner with the Albany office of Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP. New associates at Whiteman Osterman are making $76,000 as of Jan. 1, one of the highest totals for entry-level lawyers in the Capital Region. The Career Center at Albany Law School generally advises its students that they can expect starting pay of between $55,000 and $78,000 at the larger law firms in the area, said Sandra Mans, assistant dean of the center. New lawyers working for the state can expect less. The entry-level salary for counsels in the state Senate, for instance, is currently $45,000 a year, Senate majority spokesman Mark Hansen said. The New York City firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett started a new round of pay increases in January by raising new associates' salaries. That followed a similar increase, from $125,000 to $145,000, in 2006 at the leading city firms. In response to the latest round of increases, more than 60 law firms have raised starting associates' salaries to $160,000 in New York City and $145,000 in other cities, according to the recruiting company BCG Attorney Search. Another national recruiting firm, Robert Half Legal, is projecting that the starting salary at the biggest Manhattan firms could rise to $190,000 a year by the end of this year. Those figures do not count the bonuses the law firms typically pay annually. The 'white shoe' firms The new lawyers vying for the highest-paying first jobs are typically the kinds of students out of movies like "The Paper Chase:" the graduates at the tops of Ivy League law schools. They end up at huge "white shoe" law firms such as Dewey Ballantine or Wilkie Farr & Gallagher where there are several hundreds of attorneys on staff. "Those salaries are based upon competition with businesses for these people and with the other law firms and private enterprise," said Kenneth Shapiro, a senior partner with Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker in Albany. "The price keeps going up. The young lawyers who are getting that money, they are coming out of the elite law schools. They were on their law reviews. In my opinion, that has no bearing at all with this area." Nicholas D'Ambrosio, senior partner with Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC in Albany, said he lived the life of a young associate lawyer in New York City after graduating from Syracuse University Law School in 1985. He spent 51/2 years with Vedder Price, a firm known for what D'Ambrosio specializes in: labor and employment law. "It was very interesting and a great experience and I am thankful every day that I live and work in the Capital District," D'Ambrosio said. The high salaries tend to lose some of their meaning amid the often astronomical cost of living and stress of functioning in New York City, he said. "There is a lot that we take for granted living in the Capital Region that can be difficult in New York City," he said. "Just getting to work on a hot, humid summer day can be very uncomfortable in New York City. Here, we just get in an air-conditioned car. Getting cross-town for a meeting can be very difficult in New York City. You can really feel the stress of the pace of life." Coming home Chris Meyer, a University at Albany and Washington and Lee Law School graduate, said he practiced for years in Washington, D.C., at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom--one of the country's largest firms with more than 1,800 lawyers on staff nationally--before deciding to return to the Capital Region two years ago. He and his wife wanted to be closer to their families. The quality of life here was also a factor, as was the growth potential of the area's high-technology sector and the chance to work for a smaller firm, he said. He chose Whiteman Osterman, the Capital Region's largest firm with 70 lawyers on staff. "Working in a smaller place, one of the great things here is the opportunity to not only get to know the other members of the bar, but to have regular interaction in front of judges and actually practice in the courts, instead of behind a desk," the commercial litigation specialist said. The lower salary he is getting in Albany is offset by a more reasonable approach to work. "Skadden Arps, I loved it there," he said. "The work there was great. It was very challenging. But at the same time, the large firms and high salaries come with an expectation of putting in a lot of hours and making a lot of sacrifices. The question for me was where could I find a place where I could work with excellent lawyers and on challenging matters and at the same time maintain a balance between my work and personal lives?" Young lawyers sometimes take the New York City route out of law school because they want to pay off law school loans as quickly as they can, Ruzow said. It is not unusual for students to pile up more than $100,000 in college debt. One way students offset some of that debt is by working for law firms their second summers in law school, when a 10-week job can bring them $30,000, D'Ambrosio said. High pay, high expenses Martin Finn, senior partner in Lavelle & Finn LLP in Latham, said his firm has benefited from Albany's proximity to New York City instead of losing potential employees to high-paying city firms. "We've had the opposite happen," he said. "We've had people, yeah they made a lot of money down in New York, but they wanted a lifestyle change. They are looking for something more laid-back--a more family-time situation." Lawyers making $200,000 or more in New York City may make only half that in Albany, but they accept the lifestyle benefits as being worth the difference, Finn said. Arlen Olsen, senior partner with Schmeiser Olsen & Watts, said his Latham firm has started to attract clients from New York City who find Albany lawyer rates cheaper and the service more personalized than at the city mega-firms. Olsen, too, said the $160,000 is misleading as a quality-of-life indicator. "That $160,000, with the cost of living, that attorney is going to be living in a condo in New York City," he said. "Up here, they are going to have an acre of land, a nice 3,000- or 4,000-square-foot home. We can pay a lot less and still be competitive with the New York City firms." Whiteman Osterman has also seen business coming up the Hudson River from clients who are tired of being billed $275 to $300 an hour by firms in New York City, Ruzow said. Clients like the sound of the $140-an-hour fee at Whiteman Osterman, he said. D'Ambrosio said lawyers can typically develop better at smaller firms in cities like Albany than at the biggest of the New York firms. "Despite the lure of the big salaries, the opportunity for client contact comes at a much earlier stage here," he said. "In New York City, you start at the bottom of a very large pyramid and are often given huge document review on massive cases. While the work pays very well, it is not very professionally gratifying. It often doesn't help people advance their careers as it would if you were up here. You can get to court earlier. You can handle closings sooner." jstashenko@bizjournals.com | 518-640-6808 rg/12/'>lung cancer systoms