Median income of U.S. lawyers slumped since 2001, Holland & Hart nabs six-lawyer team in Salt Lake City, Paul Weiss adds senior Winston partner duo
Reuters Legal
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A study finds that declining demand for legal services is depressing lawyer income. Holland & Hart recruits a tax attorney team to advise high-net-worth clients in Salt Lake City. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison brings on two new partners in New York from Winston & Strawn. Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner adds partner Ravi Nayer to its business and commercial disputes team in London from Quinn Emanuel.
A new study found that lawyers are earning less now than they did in 2001 when accounting for inflation.
The median “real income” of U.S. lawyers fell nearly 2% from $129,389 in 2001 to $126,930 in 2020, according to a paper slated to appear in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Economics and Finance.
By contrast, the real income of all U.S. workers grew by nearly 4% during that period. Across sectors, lawyers' median real income peaked at $134,005 in 2010 and has gradually declined since, according to the data.
Authors James Koch and Barbara Blake Gonzalez, who are on the faculty of Old Dominion University’s economics department, analyzed data ranging from lawyer pay and populations, to national spending on legal services, bar pass rates and paralegal ratios over the past two decades to find out why real income among lawyers has stalled when compared to that of the other workers.
Their study concluded that the combination surplus of lawyers and declining demand for lawyer’s services are driving the trend.
“Demand side influences on lawyers’ incomes loom large,” they wrote in the paper, titled, “Why has the median real income of lawyers been declining?”
Holland & Hart said it recruited a group of private client and tax attorneys to advise high-net-worth clients in Salt Lake City.
According to a statement by Denver-founded Holland & Hart, the six-lawyer team, which includes partners Brent Andrewsen and Thomas Mecham, joins from Utah firm Kirton McConkie.
Holland & Hart's private client practice?focuses on estate planning and wealth management work for families, individuals, family offices and foundations with a focus on tax and wealth transfer matters, according to the firm’s website.
Among the new recruits, Andrewsen was chairman of 160-lawyer Kirton McConkie's board until January, according to his LinkedIn bio.
Steve Young, leader of the firm's tax and benefits practice group said that the 470-lawyer firm looked to expand its private client group in Salt Lake City to support its work in Denver and other markets:
"We are seeing a lot more wealth in the Intermountain West region. The secret is out that Utah is a great place to be."
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Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has brought on two new partners –?Robert Sperling and Staci Yablon – in New York from Winston & Strawn, beefing up its financial industry litigation bench and expanding its work for longtime client Goldman Sachs.
Yablon co-led the financial services litigation practice at Winston.
The pair have represented Goldman Sachs Group in a series of lawsuits, including litigation over the bank's involvement with the looting scandal at Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
Sperling appears set to continue representing Goldman as it fights allegations that it misled shareholders about its work for 1MDB, according to federal court records. He is also representing Goldman in a separate shareholder lawsuit that appears to be near its end.
Paul Weiss has represented Goldman Sachs in several shareholder lawsuits, including one that challenged a $2.8 billion merger between two biotech firms that Goldman shepherded.
Sperling's other clients have included Credit Suisse Group AG, Discover Financial Services, Household International, JPMorgan Chase, Keybanc Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley.
International law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has added partner Ravi Nayer to its business and commercial disputes team in London from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
Nayer focuses on insurance, data, pension and asset management-related disputes in the Caribbean, U.S., India and North Africa, Bryan Cave said.
According to Graham Shear, European leader of Bryan Cave’s litigation and investigations team, Nayer has expertise with class actions and torts.
Before joining Quinn Emanuel as a partner in August 2021, Nayer was a partner at Boston-founded Brown Rudnick and London-headquartered Pinsent Masons, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Nayer was also global disputes head of British financial services company Legal & General from 2017 to 2018, the profile said.
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