On hiring and pay decisions, Jeff Schneider, managing partner of the 16-attorney litigation firm Levine Kellogg Lehman Schneider + Grossman in Miami, said, “We have a small group of equity partners, so pretty much we do everything by consensus.” The partners meet every couple of months, go a round the table and assess staffing needs. “If at the end of the process people are screaming that they're too busy, we'll hire,” Jeff Schneider said.  “If you go two or three months and people are too busy, it's unhealthy, and that's when we know we need another lawyer.” “They'll say to their friends. 'I'm happy, you're not,' " and lay the groundwork for a move, Jeff Schneider said. Usually, the two attorneys — inside and out — went to law school together or worked together at another firm.  “They're not just colleagues; they're friends. And that's exactly what we have at the top." to address non-attorney staffing needs. “We didn't used to be statewide. Now we're multistate” with offices in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. “We've got a bigger platform now,” and more hiring is under way. Pay issues for attorneys run through three committees: a hiring committee for new hires, compensation committee for annual reviews and a bonus committee for annual bumps. The committees “probably do 90 percent of the lifting, 95 percent of the lifting,” Hendricks said. When bigger firms recruit Lydecker attorneys, Hendricks said he'll bow out gracefully. A recent departee was offered $40,000 a year more to go, and “I shook his hand.” But some end up returning.  While starting pay may be lower than Big Law, “We catch up to them, and we might even pass them after a few years.”

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