Associates at Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz can thank management for setting a standard-breaking bonus scale for Biglaw associates, according to a report by Above the Law.

The firm, with offices in Washington, Los Angeles and New York, set a bonus scale that is 1.5 times the going market rate. Above the Law senior editor Staci Zaretsky writes that this is the fourth time the firm has beaten the market on bonuses since it opened four years ago.

Senior associates and those in the class of 2012 are in line for bonuses of $150,000.

Read the Above the Law article.

Goodwin Proctor has announced an expanded paid parental leave policy for employees in its U.S. offices, reports Above the Law.

The new policy gives lawyers up to 18 weeks paid parental leave, while staff will be eligible to take at least 12 weeks. And birth mothers will be eligible to take at least six additional weeks of disability leave, according to the announcement sent to employees.

The firm also announced that lawyers will move to a flexible vacation policy, with no specified limit to the total number of vacation days in a calendar year.

Read the Above the Law article.

Littler, an international employment and labor law practice representing management, has released the results of its second annual European Employer Survey Report, completed by 572 in-house counsel and human resources professionals.

The firm reports the survey found that improving workplace equality is top-of-mind for European employers, and most respondents are moving to address equal pay and workplace harassment. Employers are also taking a variety of steps to support the mental health of their employees. And despite the uncertainty surrounding the United Kingdom’s looming exit from the European Union, a surprising portion of respondents feel prepared for Brexit’s employment-related impacts.

The survey findings were unveiled at Littler’s European Employer Conference in London.

The firm provided a summary of the survey’s findings:

Workplace Equality

European employers are focusing a great deal of attention on equal pay, reporting increased engagement on a variety of potential actions in comparison to the 2018 survey. Providing female and diverse employees with more training and opportunities for advancement showed the greatest increase (up from 21 percent in 2018 to 33 percent in 2019), followed by improving transparency around wages and pay policies (up from 21 to 30 percent) and modifying compensation policies (up from 25 to 32 percent).

The proliferation of laws mandating gender pay gap audits in European countries appears to be one driver of this activity. Most respondents (80 percent) identify conducting and reporting on their gender pay gaps as a concern, but the European employers surveyed are also taking actions beyond those required by law.

“In addition to legal liability, employers are worried that pay inequities in their workplaces could negatively impact their reputations, employee satisfaction and their ability to attract talent,” said Thomas Griebe, Littler partner in Germany. “Particularly as labor markets tighten, recruiting and retaining qualified employees is a challenge, and it becomes more difficult if current and potential employees are concerned about being comparatively underpaid.”

European employers are also moving slightly more aggressively to address workplace sexual harassment, by updating HR policies (up from 26 percent in 2018 to 32 percent in 2019), more proactively addressing complaints and misconduct (up from 23 to 31 percent) and strengthening investigative procedures (up from 23 to 30 percent).

Furthermore, a fair percentage of respondents support European governments taking steps to combat sex-based harassment and discrimination in the workplace; nearly half (42 percent) support requiring companies to designate a point of contact for workers to bring allegations and more than a third (35 percent) support mandatory reporting on the state of gender equality.

“Given that strict regulatory action has not been widespread in the countries surveyed, employers appear to be taking action to address sexual harassment in order to ensure a positive workplace for employees and help protect themselves from liability,” said Merete Furesund, Littler partner in Norway. “Concern and attention to this issue have led European employers to take a range of concrete actions and boost their efforts to combat it.”

A comparison with the results of Littler’s latest annual survey of employers in the United States, released in May 2019, shows higher European engagement on equal pay, whereas more US employers report taking action to address workplace sexual harassment. Only 15 percent of European employers say they have not taken any action to address equal pay in the workplace, compared to 37 percent of US employers. On the other hand, more US employers report taking steps in response to the #MeToo movement, including providing additional training (22 percent in Europe compared to 63 percent in the US) and updating HR policies (32 percent in Europe compared to 51 percent in the US).

These differences may reflect the level of media and legislative attention paid to these issues in Europe vs. the US. Legal measures requiring gender pay gap reporting have been more prevalent in Europe, while the #MeToo movement in the US has given rise to a bevy of state laws requiring sexual harassment training.

Workplace Mental Health

Against the backdrop of an aging workforce, rapidly evolving technology and market pressures requiring employees to do more with less, European employers are increasingly focused on mental illness in the workplace. Nearly nine in 10 respondents (87 percent) say their organisations are taking various actions to address and support employees’ mental health. Forty-one percent are providing adequate time off and sick leave, 38 percent are limiting work hours and off-the-clock work and 35 percent are encouraging a culture that supports open communication between employees and management.

“Workplace mental health is having its #MeToo movement. It’s always been there, but now it’s being acknowledged as a serious concern,” said Stephan Swinkels, Coordinating Partner International at Littler. “Given the array of forces driving the issue, we can expect continued momentum as workers feel more comfortable speaking out and companies become more involved in order to retain talent, reduce workplace stress and promote productivity.”

Companies are also putting greater emphasis on supporting workers returning from extended mental-health leave. More than a quarter (28 percent) say their organisations have been successful in reintegrating employees and only six percent say they have been unsuccessful. However, the fact that a plurality of respondents (38 percent) don’t know if their organisations are effective in this regard signals continued room for improvement.

Brexit’s Impact on Employment

Since the UK voted to leave the EU three years ago, the potential fallout from Brexit has created headaches for many companies. Despite the fog of uncertainty surrounding respondents in late summer, when they took the survey, 48 percent say they are somewhat or very prepared for the employment-related impacts of Brexit. Only 12 percent say they are unprepared or somewhat prepared, and the remaining 40 percent are neutral. UK respondents expressed the highest degree of preparedness; 67 percent say they feel very or somewhat prepared.

This confidence could be driven by the proactive steps employers have taken, such as moving their headquarters out of the UK, opening new offices on the mainland and identifying employees who would be affected in order to plan for work permits or replacements. It may also be bolstered by respondents’ optimism that the UK would enact a skills-based immigration system after Brexit eventually takes effect. Nearly two-thirds of UK-based respondents (59 percent) feel that such a system will enable the nation to remain a global hub for skilled workers, while only 8 percent express scepticism.

“For UK employers, having access to the skilled workers they need to run their businesses is absolutely critical,” said Paul Quain, Littler Partner in the UK. “A general climate of uncertainty that makes preparation difficult as companies don’t know what they are preparing for – combined with some anti-immigrant sentiment, including against non-British EU nationals, that has been seen by the British government as a key driver behind Brexit – leaves a great deal of ambiguity around a post-Brexit skills-based immigration system.”

The survey report covers a range of other legal and HR issues impacting European companies, including unconscious bias in the workplace, trends in artificial intelligence and robotics use, the significant rise in spending related to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and the impact of the European Court of Justice’s decision on employee working-time monitoring.

Women make up as many as 50 percent of new associates, yet they leave law firms much more frequently than men, the American Bar Association found in a new study.

Bloomberg Law, reporting on the ABA study, summarized the findings:

“The report found that there are big differences in how the genders view their firm’s handling of promotions, leadership opportunities and equity partnerships.

“Some 91% of firm leaders, for example, felt their firms are “actively advocates of gender diversity,” while only 62% of the women lawyers responding thought the same thing.”

The study found that women cited the level of stress at work, care-taking commitments, differences in pay, and the firm’s emphasis on marketing as negative factors.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Restrictive covenants in employment agreements and employee benefit arrangements will be enforced in appropriate circumstances, but parties should be aware of varying standards from state to state, warns Jonathan Orleans for Pullman & Comley.

Orleans, writing in a post for JDSupra, says that enforcement of noncompetes can be complicated. Sometimes statutes create exceptions, and sometimes exceptions are developed through caselaw.

While courts frequently comment that restrictive covenants are “disfavored in the law,” they can be enforced if they meet certain standards.

Read the article.

Biglaw firm Milbank was the first to announce its associate bonuses this season.

The scale at Milbank is the same as last year’s, Above the Law reports. The bonuses range from $15,000 to $100,000 and will be paid on Dec. 31, according to senior editor Staci Zaretsky.

And that lack of an increase is causing some negative feedback, writes Above the Law’s executive editor Elie Mystal:

“Based on my inbox, associates are not exactly thrilled about the extra $15,000 to $100,000 this scale provides. Of particular issue is the fact that in 2018, associates got summer bonuses. In 2019, they did not. So, in overall bonus compensation, a same-scale bonus actually results in less compensation for associates.”

Read the Above the Law articles here and here.

The number of Biglaw firms on Working Mother’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For climbed from two in 2018 to five this year, reports Above the Law.

Making a return appearance on the list this year are Arnold & Porter and Katten Muchin Rosenman.

Joining them on the list this year are:

• Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner
• Katten Muchin Rosenman
• Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman

Read the Above the Law article.

An Above the Law contributor takes a look at a Bureau of Labor Statistics report and finds that the estimated mean annual wage for lawyers is a respectable $144,230.

Jonathan Wolf points out that while $144,000 a year doesn’t even scratch the bottom of the Milbank/Simpson/Cravath scale, it’s still “more than enough to live a comfortable life and have a reasonable shot at paying off your student loan debt.”

He breaks down the numbers by median annual wage (lower than mean annual) and shows the range from the 10th percentile to the 75th percentile.

He also looks at judges’ wages, which tend to be lower than other attorneys’.

Read the Above the Law article.

Above the Law is reporting that Morgan Lewis & Bockius will be offering voluntary buyout packages for all of its legal secretaries, across the country.

Senior editor Staci Zaretsky writes:

“Sources say that the firm’s separation package is extremely generous, and that those who take the deal will receive 2 weeks’ salary for each year of service, up to 52 weeks’ pay. Compared to the six-month cap we’ve seen at many Biglaw firms, longtime legal secretaries at Morgan Lewis could be walking away with a huge payday should they choose to leave.”

Read the Above the Law article.

Above the Law reports it was tipped off by insiders at Biglaw firm Quinn Emanuel about a policy at the firm that has left some associates hoodwinked over losing some of their vacation time.

“According to our tipsters, in previous years the firm has allowed associates that attend the [firm’s annual hike] to bill the time to a non-billable client number,” explains Above the Law senior editor Kathryn Rubino. “When associates attempted to repeat the practice this year however, they were told that time should, instead, be charged to their vacation time.”

She adds that the firm defended the policy because it subsidizes the travel costs associated with the trip, which took place in Interlaken, Switzerland this year.

Read the Above the Law article.

More and more law firms are responding to peer competition by offering generous paid parental leave for their lawyers who become new parents, reports Above the Law.

Staci Zaretsky, a senior editor at Above the Law, writes about the reportedly industry-leading paid leave announced by Benesch.

“The firm’s plan had always been gender neutral, but today it announced its adoption of a reportedly industry-leading 20 weeks of fully paid leave for new parents, up from 12 weeks of paid leave, plus the ability to take an additional six weeks of leave without pay,” she writes, adding that there may be a handful of firms may offer a few more weeks of fully paid, gender-neutral parental leave.

Read the Above the Law article.

Results of a survey by Working Mother show some advance for women in the number of equity partners and in the number of women who rank among their firms’ most highly compensated partners.

Some of the key initiatives the survey examined include paid parental leave, the use of reduced schedules, parent-resource groups, and mentoring and sponsorship of female lawyers.

Working Mother collaborated with the ABA Journal as a knowledge partner in recruiting firms and publicizing results.

Read the Working Mother article.

Above the Law reports that Baker McKenzie has eliminated 46 staff positions — all in the London office in professional and business roles — and another 33 jobs are still at risk as part of a firm-wide assessment.

The firm’s review covers 97 positions.

“Eighteen employees in those positions resigned, and 46 have been eliminated so far (15 were identified as redundant, while there remain 31 cut altogether),” writes Above the Law senior editor Kathryn Rubino.

Read the Above the Law article.

Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP will present a free webinar with Chicago Women in IP (ChiWIP), “Understanding Women’s Conflict in the Legal Workplace and the Bias That Built It,” featuring attorneys Andie Kramer and Alton Harris, with attorney Nikki Little as moderator.

The event will be on Thursday, June 13, 2019, at 10 am PDT / 11 am MDT / 12 noon CDT / 1 pm EDT. It also will be available as an on-demand webinar after presentation.

A common misconception is that women inherently have challenging relationships with other women at work, the firm said in a release. But the research of the speakers, Andrea Kramer and Alton Harris, has shown this is patently untrue. They will provide real-world advice and tactics for how both women and men in the legal profession can avoid workplace conflict and overcome deeply rooted biases in a traditionally male-dominated industry.

During this webinar, the presenters will share insights on the following:

• Gender bias in the workplace, including women’s same-gender conflicts
• How gendered workplaces disadvantage women
• How to build supportive work environments to help women succeed and advance

Register for the webinar.

A Jones Day white paper addresses the recent trend of California courts’ trend away from generally enforcing covenants restricting individuals from soliciting their former employer’s employees.

The paper also “provides an overview of a California Court of Appeals and two federal district court decisions that reflect this trend, and discusses the extent to which California employers can still rely upon such non-solicitation provisions. It also discusses other contexts in which non-solicitation provisions are under attack: from state and federal antitrust regulators and the plaintiffs’ bar.”

Read the article.

A new book by Andrea S. Kramer and Alton B. Harris takes a look at the notion about “mean girls,” “queen bees,” and women’s competitiveness with each other in office settings.

Amy Boardman Hunt of Muse Communications interviews Kramer about “It’s Not You, It’s the Workplace: Women’s Conflict at Work and the Bias that Built It,” and the conclusion that there is no empirical evidence that women have more intense or frequent conflicts in working with other women than men do in working with other men or that women and men do in working together.

“The enduring notion that women are mean to—or hostile or antagonistic or competitive with—other women, can be explained, in part, by the fact that women often hold other women to higher interpersonal behavioral standards than men do,” Kramer, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery,  says in the interview.

Read the article.

A few Biglaw firms raised starting salaries for first-year associates to $190,000 last June, but a study by the National Association for Law Placement reveals that most firms held to a more modest course on starting salaries in 2018.

Above the Law reports on the NALP study, which found that only 29.3 percent of reported first-year associate salaries hit the $190,000 mark. Smaller firms and firms with head counts between 501 and 700 didn’t budge and reported flat associate salary growth in 2018, writes Above the Law senior editor Kathryn Rubino.

Most of the top first-year salaries were at firms in the major markets.

Read the Above the Law article.

The former general counsel of ExlService Holdings says in a lawsuit that she suffered from gender stereotyping in her job, illustrated by an order from the CEO that she serve cake to the company’s junior male employees at a company anniversary.

The Washington Post reports on the complaint, which says the CEO at that anniversary event singled out then-GC Nancy Saltzman as one of the “ladies” in the room, despite the fact that she was the most senior female executive at the company. The complaint says Saltzman was humiliated.

The complaint says the event was an example of gender stereotyping. The Post‘s Deanna Paul writes: “According to the complaint, [the CEO] ‘took steps to exclude her from career and advancement opportunities, subjected her to enhanced scrutiny, and micromanaged her’ in a manner her male equals were not.”

She complained to other executives about stereotyping, but she later was fired.

Read the Washington Post article.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison took a hit on social media in December when a partnership promotion photo appeared to show just one woman and 11 white men.

The ABA Journal points out that the law firm later said the partnership class actually included one woman, one Latino and one LGBTQ partner, making it 25% diverse.

Now a new report released by the nonprofit group Lawyers of Color shows Paul Weiss with the highest percentage of black lawyers out of 400 law firms surveyed. The report says 8.27 percent of Paul Weiss’ lawyers are black. The average of black lawyers across the 400 firms surveyed was 3.2 percent.

Read the ABA Journal article.

There are circumstances that allow a departing employee to challenge the legitimacy of a non-compete agreement, even if this type of contract meets all the legal requirements, writes Romy Jurado of Jurado & Farshchian.

In her article, she discusses two questions that arise when an employee challenges a non-compete: Should an employee actually challenge the agreement? And: How exactly does an employee challenge it?

She also discusses the three basic approaches an employee might take to challenge the agreement: Ignoring it; negotiating with the employer; and filing a declaratory judgment action.

Read the article.