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Subject Expert
I interviewed with Firm A months ago and accepted a position to start this upcoming fall. Group leader called me to offer the position back in November 2020. Besides interviewing with partners at the firms, and diligent follow ups notifying them of my interest to get started, no communication has transpired since.It turns out that I accepted a better offer w/ Firm B for personal reasons and won’t be going to Firm A. What is the best way to notify Firm A? Call/email group leader? Call/email HR?
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Subject Expert
I don’t think it’s the kind of thing where they’re officially told “you will be fired if you disclose salary” but it’s easy to make a culture of “this is uncouth, no one does this, I promise we’re being fair to all of you and it’s all very very case by case and we put soooo much thought into each person” which may even all be true… it’s very difficult to point to a particular person and say “I’m just like them why don’t I get just as much” because they/you may be exceptional or terrible in various ways. And while you can probably get a couple of your friends to tell you what they make, it’s difficult to get buy in from every single associate at the firm because some will inevitably drink the coolaid and/or they don’t want to disclose either because they make above market and don’t want other associates to hate them or they make below market and don’t want other associates to think they’re a low performer.
Whereas when everyone basically knows what every single person in your class makes you can see whether the average truly is market and whether you are being paid above or below average.
Following up on this. It’s not really enforceable. I was at a different black box firm though and it’s hard to get genuine data. Yea maybe 5 people you are close with will be honest about their salary, but the others you talk to may fudge their numbers or not tell you the exact amount. Even if you get accurate numbers you wouldn’t go into your review and out the person. It’s awkward to say “I know some people are making x”. Thus, the numbers are only helpful for benchmarking.
Subject Expert
Lolz this is hilarious. 0 way to enforce this. Not sure if this is true but honestly wouldn’t surprise me.
Coach
Secret police tactics. Randomly accuse people of it publicly, have them disappear into a basement doc review in a cold room. Reward snitches with partnership. Remind everyone, “show me the associate, and I’ll show you the crime.”
Can you link the post?
Mentor
why would anyone in biglaw be on TLS?
How did people not know this? Associates don’t even know when they’re finding out about raises, a confidential envelope just gets delivered to their office that says the amount. No one will say what they’re being paid because they don’t want to be pegged as the loser or “weak link” of their class making less money than everyone else.
Mentor
I have a friend there and they say the same thing. Not sure if / how it’s enforced