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Law360 (August 20, 2020, 3:16 PM EDT ) K&L Gates LLP has performed better than expected during the coronavirus pandemic and is rolling back some of the pay cuts it instituted this spring, the Pittsburgh-based firm confirmed Thursday.
Most employees will see a 33% improvement in previously imposed reductions after Sept. 1, with equity partners seeing a 25% improvement in the reductions, according to an email sent internally last week by global managing partner James Segerdahl, which the firm confirmed.
Advances for equity partners beginning in late September will be 15% less than normal, rather than 20% less than normal, according to the Aug. 14 email obtained by Law360. Those who earn between $75,001 and $100,000 will again receive their pre-reduction compensation as of Sept. 1, the email said.
Income partners, associates and staffers beginning in early September will see a 10% reduction in their salaries, as opposed to a 15% reduction, according to the email. A K&L Gates spokesman declined to comment beyond the email's contents.
"Our firm is well-positioned," Segerdahl wrote in the email. "As we look ahead, we see a bright future and we have learned much about our resilience and abilities as a firm through a difficult period."
K&L Gates announced in April that beginning the following month, it was temporarily cutting pay by 15% for its attorneys and staff making more than $75,000 annually. Equity partners were also to see a 20% reduction in their scheduled advances, with the cuts to be revisited on a regular basis as the year progressed, the firm said at the time.
Segerdahl said in the email that since the pay reductions were implemented, K&L Gates is "doing quite well under the circumstances and given the widespread economic distress."
"We have shown as a firm that we are highly capable of working together to deliver first rate legal advice and work product through the most difficult of circumstances — even through a crisis such as the one we are experiencing now," Segerdahl wrote.
--Additional reporting by Xiumei Dong and Hailey Konnath. Editing by Alanna Weissman.
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