The idea is that the new hires � the firm is looking into starting with a pilot group of 15 � will be lawyers “with good pedigrees” who have practiced for a few years but don’t want to deal with big-firm hours, Mallory said. Instead, they’ll put in more like 30-40 hours, and be paid something like 25 percent less, though an exact pay range hasn’t been decided.

“They’ll have a status within our structure that’s brand-new,” Mallory said. “I don’t know what we’d call them � this is a new animal.”

These attorneys will probably be housed in a similar fashion to accounting firms, rotating desks with no home base.

The new class of attorneys will probably take some of the more mundane tasks like document review off the plates of more expensive associates on the partnership track.

“The idea isn’t that this will be a training ground,” he said. “This isn’t a path into the firm.”

REACTION AND IMPLICATIONS

Hackett predicted that McDermott’s plan could have broad-reaching effects, both positive and negative for associates.

It could free associates to work on more interesting matters, but it may also threaten their salary leverage � and their jobs.

“Unless new work is generated for associates in the regular tier, it could make them nervous: ‘I might be extinct in this firm,’” she said.

Mallory said he doesn’t think associates will feel threatened by the new group.

“I believe it will be embraced because it will take some of the more routine work they’d be doing off the table,” he said.

Hackett said the McDermott program could create more options in big law firms, where young attorneys could decide whether to gun for partnership or take a more lifestyle-oriented approach to big law.

One consultant noted that while contract attorneys are nothing new, McDermott’s plan to openly use lower-paid attorneys who aren’t on the partnership track makes an interesting statement.

Associate Salary Wars

The New York firms fired the first shot at the tail end of January, hiking starting rates to $160K. Most California firms held the line in-state at $145K … until Orrick made its surprise move in May. Follow every twist of the saga in our Hot Topic roundup.