Seyfarth Shaw has released more details about its move to a merit-based associate compensation plan. This plan will be phased in over several months in 2010 and place associates in three different tiers or “bands”. The tiers are the rough equivalent to junior, mid level and senior associate positions at big firms. Instead of seniority based promotions, associates are evaluated and promoted based on a mastery of 11 core competencies in each band. Competencies include “delivering legal excellence”, “driving client value” and “building a practice”. Before implementing the new compensation system Seyfarth had a hybrid merit and seniority-based promotion system in place.

Founded in 1945, Seyfarth Shaw is a general practice Chicago based firm with 775 lawyers. The firm has additional offices in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.