Law firms took on some 200 qualified personnel during November, according to the country’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the numbers annually for the sector as a whole even more impressive. As reported in the AmLaw Daily web site, according to the bureau, the legal sector now employs some 1.12 million people across the US, 5,800 more than in November 2011.

Year-end bonuses

The employment fillip came as yet another New York-based firm announced it was falling in line with benchmark year-end bonuses. Park Avenue’s Kaye Scholer said it would follow rates set a few weeks ago by New York rivals Cravath Swaine & Moore. However, the firm said that it would award extra bonus payments to those associates surpassing the 2,200 annual hour billing mark.
‘A law firm is only as strong as its people,’ Kaye Scholer managing partner Michael Solow told AmLaw Daily. ‘And bonuses are designed to recognise those who not only meet, but regularly exceed expectations. Every year there are some associates whose performance is truly outstanding, sacrificing from their personal lives to serve Kaye Scholer and our clients. We therefore only think it appropriate that those associates deserve a little extra at bonus time.’

Sandy fall out

While New York firms scramble to determine their associate bonus rates, many lower Manhattan practices are still camped out in temporary accommodation following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy at the end of October.
According to a report in the New York Law Journal, six weeks after Sandy swept through the city, dislocated firms are facing the prospect of having to renew temporary leases in midtown for some time to come. The key issues is technology and telecommunications, with the publication quoting New York mayor Michael Bloomberg as pointing out that the storm destroyed about 95 per cent of the local copper wiring network in downtown Manhattan.
One law firm particularly hard it is Harris Beach, with one of its lawyers telling the Journal that the practice’s basement was ‘substantially flooded with salt water’ that severely damaged telephone and electricity wiring.