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18 ¦ OCTOBER 26, 2020 NEWS

¦ From ADJUSTING on PAGE 17 Intelligence for 2019, the staff cuts amount to more
than 50 staff members.
Reed Smith
Reed Smith partially walked back pay cuts effective
Sept. 1. The 20% compensation cut for fixed-share Squire Patton Boggs
partners was reduced to 15%. For counsel, a 20% The firm kicked off a redundancy consultation
compensation cut was reduced to 15%. round across its U.K. offices, it announced Sept. 4.
For associates, a current 15% compensation The cuts will affect administrative staff only, accord-
cut remained at that level. (Previously, the firm ing to the firm, and will impact a “small number” of
planned a 20% cut for Sept. 1.) For professional roles.
staff earning more than $100,000, a 10% cut be-
came a 5% cut.
Stoel Rives
The firm first took moves to slow partner draws in On Oct. 12, Stoel Rives is restoring full pay to
late March by 40% for equity partners. The August all of its attorneys and staff. The firm had partially
statement did not address changes to equity partner reversed the pay cuts in September. The original
pay. austerity measures, instituted in April, cut pay by up
to 20% for associates and counsel while also cutting
hourly staff pay by single-digits and reducing part-
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
The firm in August confirmed 5% and 10% cuts to ner draws by 20%.
staff salaries announced in May will be cut in half, to
2.5% and 5%, respectively. Staff attorneys, associates Thompson & Knight
and special counsel at the firm had initially taken a On Oct. 1, the Texas-based firm opened a new
12% reduction in pay and will now have that moved administrative center in Columbus, Ohio, to handle
down to 6%. The changes took effect Aug. 31 and business services. Because the functions moved off-
paid out Sept. 8. site, managing partner Mark Sloan said, the firm
The firm also brought back two of the 51 fur- eliminated some positions in the firm’s document
loughed staff who were unable to perform their processing and graphic design departments. The
jobs from home, the email said. The firm said it is cuts involved fewer than the 18 people working in
continuing to assess the other 49. All of the firm’s Columbus, he said.
secretaries, save those in Chicago and Washing-
ton, D.C., will remain on the WorkShare program Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders
the firm enacted in May, through the end of the On Sept. 4, managing partner Thomas Cole
year. announced an end to all COVID-related salary re-
The firm confirmed on Oct. 6 that it laid off 22 ductions and repeated the firm’s intention to pay
of the 44 staff it had previously furloughed, offer- out the reduced amounts later in the year. Troutman
ing the remaining 22 the option to take a voluntary Sanders and Pepper Hamilton announced auster-
buyout. It also announced to lawyers and staff in a ity measures separately in the spring, before their
series of town halls Tuesday that it would roll back merger became official July 1.
any remaining pay cuts and pay back what those re-
ceiving percentage-based cuts did not receive from Venable
April through September. On Sept. 2, the firm said “it is increasing the
compensation of salaried attorneys and staff from
previously reduced levels,” as well as “aligning our
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Skadden confirmed in a statement to The Ameri- staffing to meet our current and future needs.” That
can Lawyer on Sept. 3 that it had “laid off just under includes returning some furloughed employees to
4% of professional staff across our U.S. offices.” work and laying off some professional staff, some of
Based on census figures the firm provided to ALM whom had been furloughed, the firm said.
¦

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