It’s the first Monday in October. There is a chill in the air, the Yankees and Red Sox are gearing up for the post-season (while the Mets mercifully go away), and the hearts and minds of Biglaw associates turn to their year-end bonuses.

Some have predicted a “no bonus” season, courtesy of the Great Recession. But DLA Piper has given Above the Law the first concrete bonus information of the season, and bonuses will be paid.

Associates at DLA Piper were informed on Friday that while this year’s bonus won’t meet last year’s half-Skadden levels, the firm will be paying bonuses this year. Sources report that DLA’s bonus will come in between $5,000 and $50,000. A tipster reported the news this way:

I’m just finishing up my first full calendar year at DLA. I’ve got a job, I’ve got a bonus. I’ve got all my life to live, I’ve got all my love to give. I WILL SURVIVE.

Congratulations.

DLA won’t make a final decision until January. But as of now, we have a market floor for bonuses, and it is greater than zero! That is pretty awesome.

Other good news from DLA Piper after the jump.

Last month, DLA Piper lost a prominent former lawmaker from its ranks when Dick Armey had to step down due to controversy over his remarks about healthcare reform. This week, DLA has a new Republican to tout: former U.S. Senator Mel Martinez.

Martinez, who hails from the Sunshine State, announced last month that he was ending his senatorial term early. From the BLT:

A Florida Republican and the first Cuban-American elected to the Senate, Martinez announced in August that he would resign with more than a year remaining on his first term, saying that “it’s time I return to Florida and my family.”

The BLT says Martinez will be a partner in DLA’s offices in both Washington and Tampa, though in DLA’s press release Martinez emphasizes the time he’ll be spending in Florida: “Working in DLA Piper’s offices in Florida, I look forward to helping the firm grow its practice in Latin America and collaborating with a team of distinguished lawyers and professionals with the highest level of legislative knowledge and diplomatic skill.”

Specifically, Martinez might want to help DLA Piper grow its practice in Cuba. When Martinez resigned from Congress, he told the Washington Post:

“Even though I will no longer hold public office, my passion to work to see the day when people in Cuba will live in freedom will continue,” he said.

Over at Politico, Kenneth Vogel discusses the quick jump from the Hill to the Piper.

As we finish off the Vault top 50, we look at some firms went through some tough layoffs.

Here’s the list:

41. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
42. Baker & McKenzie
43. Goodwin Procter
44. DLA Piper
45. King & Spalding
46. Jenner & Block
47. Dewey & LeBoeuf
48. Proskauer Rose
49. Vinson & Elkins
50. Irell & Manella

It might not look like it, but there is a lot of carnage on this list. Orrick is down four spots. Proskauer is down four spots. King & Spalding is down 3 spots.

And many of the firms here that are marginally up or holding steady still went through significant layoffs.

After the jump, Law Shucks offers some stats.

A Friday afternoon in August — the perfect time for a resignation. As first reported by Politico:

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) is resigning from DLA Piper law firm amid a wave of negative attention his grassroots organization, Freedom Works, has drawn for helping to organize protesters at health care town hall meetings with members of Congress.

In an interview with POLITCO Armey said that he was concerned about the media scrutiny the health care protests were drawing to the firm he has been associated with since retiring from Congress.

“The firm is busy with its business, and shouldn’t be asked to take time out from their work, to defend themselves of spurious allegations,” Armey said. “No client of this firm is going to be free to mind its own business without harassment as long as I’m associated with it.”

This is the culmination of a controversy that was brewing over the past week.

Based on a Washington Post article profiling the Five O’Clock Club, an outplacement and career coaching company, we constructed a Biglaw blind item:

Which New York law firm, having already completed two rounds of layoffs, has hired the Five O’Clock Club to help it carry out additional layoffs (in August, October, and November)?

After we ran the item, several firms came forward to declare they’re not the firm in question. And now they’re joined by one more: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

A spokesperson for Morgan Lewis contacted ATL to say that it isn’t the firm with layoffs in the works. In fact, Morgan Lewis claims that it shouldn’t even be on the shortlist of contenders.

Read why — and check out the list of the Five O’Clock Club’s clients, including some very prestigious law firms that haven’t publicly admitted to layoffs — after the jump.

DLA Piper, one of the biggest law firms in the country (and the world), has added its voice to the changing nature of Biglaw summer programs.

In a letter sent to law school deans and career service officers (and obtained by Above the Law), DLA Piper announced it was deferring its current summers and delaying recruiting for new summers.

For current summers, the program is similar to the one Weil Gotshal announced earlier this month. The earliest 2009 summer associates will be able to start is January 2011, and they will be encouraged to take a deferral and not start until January 2012. Here’s how the DLA memo puts it:

One result of these deferrals is that our current summer associates would start at the firm at approximately the same time as the Fellowship participants from our class of 2009, creating another potential class that may exceed demand. While we proactively reduced the size of our summer class for 2009 to half the size of the Summer 2008 class, the start date changes require that we adjust the start dates for this class as well. We have therefore made the decision to make offers to this Summer’s class in generally the same manner as the last class. We will make offers to our summer associates of 2009 soon after the program ends, and the offers will be for a January 2011 start date. We expect that some portion of the class will be encouraged to participate in a Fellowship program during 2011, further deferring the expected start date to January 2012 for some. We plan to keep these offers open until the NALP deadline of November 15.

That is bad news for summers that are currently at DLA, but it also means that summers who want to go to DLA will have to wait their turn.

More details after the jump.

This seems like a stressful time to be enrolled at Duke Law School. The news of firms pulling out of on-campus interviewing at the school continues to grow. The latest big name firms to partially pull out of Duke recruiting are DLA Piper and Kirkland & Ellis. Here’s the email Duke students received late last week about DLA:

We received notification from the employer, DLA Piper (Austin, Dallas, CA offices), that they will be canceling interviews. You will not need to contact them as we have forwarded your resume on file to them (unless you wish to send an updated resume). In addition, they have posted a resume collections via Symplicity for your convenience. They will review your resume and contact you if they are interested in speaking with you further.

There is nothing else that you have to do at this point. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused and wish you well in your other interviews. You will be removed from this interview and your interview schedule will reflect this change.

At least they can still interview for DLA New York.

But today, Duke students found out that K&E was also dropping them. K&E Chicago never signed up to recruit on-campus. K&E D.C. dropped out today:

Unfortunately, Kirkland & Ellis’ Washington, DC, office just contacted us to say they will be canceling their on campus interview schedule. We know this news is frustrating for you. They have posted a position and are soliciting resumes on Symplicity, and we strongly encourage you to apply.

To reflect the change, you will soon see the firm removed from your interview schedule. As you plan and conduct both your on-campus interviews and outreach to employers, please stay in close touch with the Career Counselors so we can help you maximize your success.

But as summer opportunities continue to dry up, Duke Law students are still trying to figure out whether they’ve made it onto law review. And once again, what should be a simple notification process seems totally screwed up.

More details after the jump.

Earlier today, we told you that some DLA Piper incoming first years were worried about their standing with the firm. We’re now going to clear some runway space for that worry to take off into a full panic.

Sources report that DLA Piper has laid off 120 people today. DLA would not confirm our reports, but we have multiple independent sources telling us that 20 lawyers and 100 staffers are being let go today.

Update (1:11 PM): The firm is now confirming that DLA laid off 121 people: 21 lawyers and 100 staff. Read the full statement after the jump.

No word on severance, but we also understand that New York and Chicago will be the offices that are hardest hit by today’s news.

Some instant DLA history, and an update from the firm, after the jump.

Incoming DLA Piper associates have to feel a little queasy about the state of the firm. DLA has already laid off 180 U.S. employees (and 140 people in the U.K.). And the firm has pushed back start dates to January 2010 for some associates, while encouraging incoming first year associates to use its Public Interest Fellowship and defer until January 2011.

And the firm is moving away from a lockstep system, at some point.

We previously mentioned that DLA wanted people to seriously consider taking the full year deferral. A couple of weeks ago, the National Law Journal reported that half of DLA’s incoming first years have taken the opportunity.

But the option is still voluntary, right? A couple of our sources seem to have received mixed messages from the firm.

After the jump, DLA and our tipsters try to get on the same page.

Back in May, we reported that DLA Piper decided to cut its associates’ salaries. Initially it was a 20% cut on some associates, but after our report the firm moved down to a 10%, across the board, salary cut.

But saving money was apparently only one of the goals for DLA Piper. We can also add DLA to the list of firms that want to end the system of lockstep compensation. The National Law Journal reports:

DLA, the largest firm in the United States, with about 3,785 attorneys worldwide, is one of several firms rethinking its associate program amid the need for cost-cutting brought on by the recession and in light of clients’ demand that they pay only for associates skilled enough to deliver consistent quality. The firm hopes by year end to have a new associate compensation, training and promotion structure that discards the traditional “lockstep” system of paying them based on years of service, the leaders said.

“People really want to rethink the model,” said Lee Miller, one of the firm’s joint chief executives. “I don’t think the model is broken, but people want to rethink what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.”

The model isn’t broken, but the firm is going to change it anyway? That sounds like some excellent Shock Doctrine logic.

After the jump, more details about DLA’s new business model.

Last week, we reported that DLA Piper cut associate salaries. But on Monday, we followed up that report with news that DLA had made salary cuts of up to 20% for associates who were not on pace to make their hours. Tipsters reported serious frustration with a 20% salary cut based on only a few months of accrued hours.

Well, last night there was a change in policy from DLA Piper. The firm is going to make a 10% cut across the board to all associates, regardless of hours:

We have had many conversations with partners and associates since making the adjustment, and it is clear that there are numerous anomalies in individual associate situations such that people who were typically strong performers would receive the additional compensation reduction. That is not the result we want to achieve, and we are therefore removing the additional adjustment based on year-to-date performance and maintaining a straight adjustment of 10% for all associates. We will continue to reward associates for exceptional performance in 2009 through our bonus program, taking into consideration both the associate’s performance and that of the firm.

It is an objectively good thing when a law firm responds to associate concerns. It seems that in this case, a wrong has been righted.

But, of course, not everyone is happy.

Additional complaints, after the jump.

On Friday, we reported that DLA Piper cut associate salaries by ten percent across the board. But we now know that ten percent was just the starting line for associate salary cuts.

Friday, the firm memo included this language:

Adjustments to all associate salaries at other class levels will be determined and communicated on a case-by-case basis based on class year and performance levels.

It appears that the case-by-case consultation resulted in salary cuts of up to 20% for associates that were not on pace to make their hours. Many tipsters brought this to our attention, as well as some interesting commenters:

Elie/David - what I hope is not overlooked in DLA’s move is that they made a calculated move to mislead abovethelaw and its readers by saying that starting salaries were being lowered to 145. That’s not true. A number of first year attorneys salaries were lowered to 128k. There are 3rd years making 136k. Their efforts to cover for there salary reductions should be given more exposure.

Other commenters made the point that the decision was all about hours:

You could get great performance reviews/make in excess of your budget for years/ be well regarded/ do pro bono work etc, but still the ONLY thing that was taken into account when cutting salaries was whether you were on pace for the first 4 months of this year. The published memo does not disclose this. You could be a pretty average associate and happen to have been staffed on a doc review for the first 4 months or hoarded your work and hey suddenly you are getting paid more than other associates.

Tipsters emailed us, texted us, even called us on the phone to give us details about the 20% cut. We get into the extra news after the jump.

We have a new leader in the clubhouse in terms of Vault Top 50 firms cutting associate salaries. DLA Piper is going down the salary cut road. The internal memo just went out:

We are making an adjustment of our base associate compensation in our major markets to $145,000. In those markets where the starting compensation has been $145,000, we are adjusting it to $130,000. Adjustments to all associate salaries at other class levels will be determined and communicated on a case-by-case basis based on class year and performance levels. We will continue to reward associates for exceptional performance in 2009 through our bonus program, taking into consideration both the associate’s performance and that of the firm. We also will not increase paralegal and staff compensation for this year. The timing and implementation of all of these actions will take effect June 8th and be reflected in the June 19 paycheck.

Until today, Baker & McKenzie was the most prestigious firm (according to Vault) that slashed salaries.

But DLA Piper wants people to know that its partners have already taken a hit to their earnings:

Our partners, including the three of us, have already accepted significant reductions in our projected 2009 compensation, and compensation levels for Of Counsel and Senior Counsel have also been reduced. We are now taking the further steps of bringing US associate salaries and staff salary increases into alignment with market realities.

We reported DLA’s decision to decrease partner compensation, back in March. Does sharing the pain make associates at DLA feel better about their reduced paycheck than associates at other firms?

One tipster isn’t too broken up about it:

On the bright side, at least we’re not fired. All the older associates are holding their breath awaiting the “case by case” reviews.

Read the full memo after the jump.

Some of our DC-based readers may have spotted this DLA Piper hate ad making its way around town via taxi. An ATL reader sent us this photo, saying:

I saw this cab on Connecticut Ave. in front of the Mayflower yesterday and it caught my attention. Strange.

Our first response was, “Bad PR for DLA Piper, but doesn’t everybody already know that blood money is the currency of Biglaw?” Our second response was to find out about this legislation and reach out to the firm.

The American Lawyer wrote in 2008 about the Piper’s playing the flute for the Ethiopian government. Partners Dick Armey, a former House majority leader, and Gary Klein lobbied on Capitol Hill on behalf of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who angered human rights advocates in 2005 with violent crackdowns on protesters during the elections there. The American Lawyer reports that the Piper was playing to the tune of over $50,000 a month. That’s a whole lot of injera.

The taxi ad refers to a bill introduced by Senators Feingold and Leahy “to reaffirm United States objectives in Ethiopia and encourage critical democratic and humanitarian principles and practices.” Or. in other words, a bill to encourage Ethiopia not to inflict violent crackdowns on its citizens. DLA Piper’s lobbying efforts may have paid off. The bill has been languishing with the Committee on Foreign Relations since 2008.

DLA Piper’s spokesman told us that the firm’s representation of the Ethiopian government actually ended in November. A statement from the firm refers indirectly to the protesting taxi driver (and other DLA Piper haters): “There are some very vocal elements of the Ethiopian Diaspora, particularly in the Washington area, who are opponents of the current administration in Ethiopia and go to great lengths to try to embarrass or demean those who are associated with it.”

See the full statement, after the jump. DLA Piper may no longer have Ethiopia as a client, but the firm is actively helping to churn out new lawyers over in Addis Ababa.

We hope you 3Ls haven’t signed leases in your new cities if you haven’t gotten a definite start date yet from your firm. Though it’s already mid-April, firms are continuing to assess their work levels and are determining that they won’t need new associates this fall. And, in some cases, maybe not even next fall.

Thanks to the really sucky economy — we’ve given up on putting this eloquently — many law firms have pushed start dates back to 2010, and even 2011. The announcements have been rolling in at a rapid clip, so we’re bringing you a new round-up.

DLA Piper is one of the latest to tell its incoming associates to write off 2009. From a recruiting e-mail sent around yesterday:

First, we expect that Monday, January 11, 2010 will be the start date for the next incoming class. In addition to the bar stipend program, the firm will pay you an additional stipend of $5,000 per month in November and December, 2009. This stipend will be paid to all members of the class and is not dependent on when you join the firm.

Second, since the incoming class may also be larger than our workflow needs in January 2010, we want to encourage you to try and secure a pro bono or community fellowship for up to one year prior to joining the firm for which we will compensate you… Should you choose to participate in such a fellowship, we will pay you a stipend of $5,000 per month while you are actively engaged with the fellowship, for a period of up to one year (January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010), provided you obtain a firm-approved position with a government, civic or non-profit organization serving the public interest. We encourage you to consider this option, particularly those of you who are focused on a transactional practice area since we expect the financial markets to continue to be slow overall.

Finally, while we are offering the pro bono and community fellowships now as a voluntary option, we will continue to monitor the economic climate and our work force needs between now and January 2010 and reserve the right to offer a fellowship assignment in lieu of a Firm assignment.

So…. DLA Piperites can maybe start January 11, 2010, but the tone of that e-mail is just short of pleading them to seek out a public interest gig for the year.

Getting a taste of the nonprofit life is not the worst thing in the world. At least Biglaw-bound associates will get to experience a normal 9-to-5ish work schedule before putting on the golden shackles and resigning themselves to 10 p.m. order-in sushi dinners at the office from 2011 on (assuming market conditions improve!).

Check out the latest round-up of start dates at firms across the country, after the jump.

(Ed. note: We’re continuing to update the list as new tips come in. The last update occurred at 5:49 p.m. on April 18. Thanks to all of you who have sent us tips!)