Four firms in Wilmington, Delaware have recently increased their first-year associate salary. Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell and Potter Anderson & Corroon increased starting salaries across-the-board; first-year associates now make $145,000, up from $135,000. Richards Layton & Finger and Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor matched the $145,000 first-year salary, in addition to raising pay for all other full-time associates by $10,000. Potter Anderson also implemented at $10,000 raise for all assoicates; Morris Nichols’ pay increases were slightly more than $10,000 for more senior associates. The last time that salaries have increased in Wilmington was in April or 2006.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

Baker Hostelter has a new addition to its D.C. office. Former Ohio Representative, Michael Oxley, joins the firm’s government policy group as of counsel. Oxley served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2001 to 2006, and is known for his role as the co-author of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the 2002 corporate reform law Congress passed in response to the accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and other companies. Oxley’s former chief of staff, James Conzelman, and his former speechwriter, Peggy Peterson, also are joining Oxley at Baker.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

At the start of this year, Shook Hardy & Bacon created the option for part-time partnership. Rather than having to remain of counsel, attorneys can advance from part-time associate to part-time partner. This policy was enacted especially in order to meet the needs of young female associates who often are trying to start families while managing their careers. This juggling act clearly has its effects, as only 16 percent of partners at the nation’s largest firms are women though they make up almost half of associates nationwide. However, it’s not just women that need more accomodating schedules; many women and men nowadays simply don’t want to put in the hours that previous generations did. Flexible work schedules like those offered by Shook allow these attorneys more freedom, yet still keep them on track for partnership if that is what is desired.
Source: www.kansascity.bizjournals.com

Six health care partners left Powell Goldstein for McKenna Long & Aldridge this week. Senior health care and media litigator, James C. Rawls, along with Charlene L. McGinty, Joann G. Jones, Kathlynn Butler Polvino, Summer H. Martin and Charlotte A. Combre all jumped ship; senior litigation associate, S. Derek Bauer, also joined the partners in the move. The attorneys took with them Northside Hospital, a client that the two firms had previously shared. McKenna does government affairs work for the hospital, and had an interest in expanding its health care practice.
Source: www.law.com