Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • July 11, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com managing partner of the Hartford office. "We don't distinguish among the associates at the entry level, but we distinguish based on the various markets, including the cost of liv- ing and the market for top lawyers in those cit- ies," Augustinos said in explaining the pay dif- ferential between sites. "We continually watch the market and make sure that our associates are paid what the market requires and that's much easier to do given the additional financial stability and performance that we've seen out of our recent merger," he said. The firm was Edwards Wildman until it merged with Locke Lord in Jan. 2015, after which attorneys also got raises, so the latest pay hike is the firm's second in 1½ years. Like Cra- vath, which raised pay up the experience ladder, Locke Lord pay hikes also "rippled up the chain," Augustinos said. Two factors contributed to the latest raise, he said. "One is, if you need to be competitive, then you need to make raises when the mar- ket moves, like it just did," Augustinos said. "The other factor is you need to be able to pay those higher [salaries]. The benefits of our merger included better financial stability and ability to stay with the top of the market in the cities that we serve." The recent increase for Hartford associates "was a very important statement for them that we're determined to have the best associates in all of our markets and that we have the where- withal to make sure that happens," he said. Locke Lord has 14 lawyers in Hartford. Other national firms with offices in Hart- ford, including Bracewell LLP and Brown Rudnick LLP, also followed Cravath with raises, according to Law360 and Above the Law. Representatives from those firms did not return calls or emails, but Above the Law reported Brown Rudnick matched Cravath in all U.S. offices, including Hartford, after first limiting the hikes to New York. Local firms differ Monte Frank, who became president of the Connecticut Bar Association on July 1 and is a principal at Cohen and Wolf PC, which has roughly 60 lawyers among its Bridgeport, Danbury, Orange and Westport offices, said he hasn't seen a lot of willingness among firms in the state to match the hikes that aren't part of the top 50 New York or inter- national firms. Connecticut has top-rate legal talent attracted to the state for many reasons, including quality of life, legal camara- derie and quality of work, all of which make it an enjoyable place to practice law, Frank said. The big firms with Connecticut offices are more tied to the latest market moves, he added. "But for most of the Connecticut firms, I don't think there's a strong appetite to match," Frank said, agreeing that small and midsize firms tend to follow market forces not dictated by the biggest firms. Frank said his firm pays "attention to what's going on in the market, but we've always had suc- cess at attracting high-quality lawyers because of all the other factors — quality of life, collegial- ity. I think that's important to keep in mind, and I predict we'll continue along that track." Locke Lord's Augustinos echoed quality- of-life sentiments in explaining the market pay differences. He said more young lawyers may opt for the convenience and cost of mar- kets like Hartford over slightly higher pay in places like New York. "I've practiced in Hartford my entire career and my practice is not really based in Hartford, so it doesn't really matter where I live," he said. "Most of the people in our office would probably say about the same thing. Our clients are all over the place." What Locke Lord offers, he added, "is that you can have a practice that's based on our firm's platform, that's really as sophisticated as you would find anywhere in any city with the liv- ability and cost of living of a place like Hartford." Alan Lieberman, managing partner of Ship- man & Goodwin LLP, the Hartford area's largest firm based on number of local attorneys, said the firm was watching the latest pay moves. "We are committed to being competitive in our compensation and bonus structure while remaining conscious of providing value to our clients, so we are watching, with inter- est, the reported associate pay increases," Lieberman said via email. "Over the last few years, we have had great success recruiting highly talented lawyers from first years all the way up to senior partners, resulting in appreciable growth in our attorney head count," he said. "Our compensation struc- ture is only one of the factors that attracts law- yers to our firm. We have a very interesting and sophisticated client base locally and nationally that provides many unique and challenging opportunities for our attorneys." Four other firms with offices in Hartford — Cantor Colburn LLP, Day Pitney LLP, Hal- loran & Sage LLP and Robinson + Cole LLP — declined to comment for this story. A spokesman for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, which has an office in Hartford with 19 lawyers, declined to comment, saying the firm neither publicly discloses nor comments on compensation for partners or associates. Above the Law reported the firm raised pay to the Cravath level in U.S. offices, up through seventh-year associates. n FOCUS LAW EXPERTS CORNER Employers must prep now for new federal OT guidelines By Christine P. Gonzalez R egulations released by the U.S. Depart- ment of Labor establishing new guide- lines under which employees must be paid overtime will have a far-reaching impact on employers throughout Connecticut and the nation. Business lead- ers now must take the right steps to ensure they are in compli- ance with these new rules before they take effect in December. The DOL's final rule establishes a new salary thresh- old of $47,476 a year for most employees working more than 40 hours a week — this is more than double the current threshold of $23,660. This means that under the new regula- tions, salaried workers earning less than $47,476 per year ($913 per week) must now be paid over- time — an action that has employee advocates elated but many business leaders concerned. This has been an issue debated in Washing- ton D.C. for quite some time, and while no action has been taken by Congress, President Obama opted to use his executive authority — under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act — to change the nation's overtime rules. The final rule, issued this month, is likely to impact thousands of Connecticut employ- ees and the companies that pay them, and is expected to have an effect nationwide — sim- ply put, more than 4 million Americans could be newly eligible for overtime pay within the first year of implementation. What does this mean for employers? Employers should review their payroll practices now and consider making changes to hours, job descriptions or other terms of employment to ensure they are in compliance with federal and state laws. Employers should review their workforce to determine who might be subject to the new rules. The circumstances surrounding each affect- ed employee will likely impact how employ- ers respond. For each affected employee newly entitled to overtime pay, employers may respond by choosing one or more of the following options: • Increasing the salary of an employee who meets the "duties test" to at least the new salary threshold to retain his/her exempt status; • Paying the overtime premium of one and a half times the employee's regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 each week; • Reducing or eliminating overtime hours; or, • Reducing the amount of pay allocated to base salary (provided that the employee still earns at least the applicable hour- ly minimum wage) and adding pay to account for overtime for hours worked over 40 in the workweek, to hold total weekly pay constant. The new rules take effect Dec. 1. Employ- ers should take this opportunity to properly equip themselves for dealing with the work- force, both now and well into the future. n Christine P. Gonzalez, CPA, is a partner with West Hartford accounting and consult- ing firm BlumShapiro. Christine P. Gonzalez Some firms resist pay hikes from page 1 Ted Augustinos, managing partner of the Hartford office of Locke Lord LLP, said his law firm boosted associate pay to stay competitive with the market- setting move by Cravath, Swaine & Moore of New York. First-associate pay in Hartford, however, isn't as high as in the firm's largest markets. H B J P H O T O | J O H N S T E A R N S

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