TCPAWORLD AFTER DARK: Big Firm Partners Paying Themselves $8.4MM A Year Because its Just YOUR Money…

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An Above the Law Report out today says partners at one Big Law firm made $8.4MM each.

They paid themselves $8.4MM each. 

With their client’s money.

Anyone else have a problem with that?

I get it, I deliver huge value and great results. I save my clients billions a year. But I also try to put them first in terms of charging a reasonable fee for my services and netting a well-above-average-but-still-reasonable living.

Greed sickens me. Its one of the reasons I left big law.

Not saying that my former firm was greedy. They’re actually much better than most. But when you think about how staff and associates are treated in Big Law–especially during the pandemic when profits for equity partners went through the roof while the lowest paid folks were forced to take salary cuts, ended up furloughed or got kicked to the curb–its no good. Just no good.

If you ever wonder why your Big Law bill is so BIG, the average big law partner made $1,719,676 last year.

Mystery solved.

There’s a reason lawyers are so disdained. Blood suckers and the like.

Mercifully, its a dying model. The behemoths have peaked. Associates are jumping ship in droves. And the firms have been forced to make dozens of no-book partners just to try to retain talent. But these firms are Dinosaurs. Zombie companies that won’t survive the next recession.

The Troutman Firm–and firms like it (i.e. built around true expertise and value)–are the future. Ironically, they’re also the past. The practice of law began as a stately profession. One in which practitioners shared generously with one another and scrupulously observed their client’s best interest in every aspect of their relationship.

Its a tradition I try to honor daily.

Help me do the same, if you wouldn’t mind. Pull your work from the big firms. Tell your friends there that they can make it on their own. And support them when they do leave–and they will if you encourage it. All good lawyers are noble women and men deep down. They want to do the right thing. And they’ll do it if they know you’ll support them.

Let’s end the era of corporate greed in law. Its gross.

Have a good night TCPAWorld.

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Published by Eric J. Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

1 Comment

  1. Here’s an article I can get behind!

    The number of “big law” attorneys I’ve run into who are mediocre (at best) at the profession is astonishing. I’ve noticed a big uptick in regional, mid-law firms representing F50 companies I litigate with. It’s a trend in the right direction.

    Reply

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