In April, Chadbourne & Parke cut associate salaries and promised that some or all of the money would be returned based on each associates contribution to the firm. Now it appears that all of the money cut from salaries will be restored in a lump sum payment in early 2010. On the one hand, this appears to be good news for a legal industry that has been struggling along with the rest of the economy. Chadbourne had a ready made excuse to keep some of the money but isn’t doing it. On the other hand, half of Chadbourne’s class of 2009 is still deferred indefinitely.

New York’s Chadbourne & Parke LLP, founded in 1902 by Thomas L. Chadbourne, employs 400 lawyers and tax advisers in 13 offices in nine countries. Chadbourne is best known for its global practice in project finance and energy, international insurance and reinsurance practice, multi-jurisdictional litigation in courts from Rhode Island to Russia, and corporate transactions.