According to the Fulton County Daily Report, Morris, Manning & Martin has joined the growing ranks of Atlanta-based firms cutting associate pay. The firm announced Friday that, effective Aug. 1, pay in the real estate, lending and tax groups will drop by 15 percent and pay for other associates will drop by 10 percent, according to its managing partner, Robert E. Saudek. Bonuses are not affected.

Saudek said a decline in legal work plus the readjustment of the associate salary market prompted the cuts. "Clients are not generating as much legal work, particularly in the real estate and corporate areas, as they do most years," he said in a voice mail. "Billable rates are receiving a lot of pressure, and billable hours are not as high as in prior years."

Saudek added that the market salary for associates is resetting at lower rates. He noted starting salaries increased 45 percent between 2005 and 2008, but now are declining by about 10 percent. "We feel we need to be with the market, but not above it," he said.

Starting pay at Atlanta's big firms jumped to $145,000 at the beginning of 2008. That has been followed by waves of layoffs this year.

Morris Manning has 156 lawyers, with 55 associates, according to the Martindale-Hubbell Web site.

The Business Review reports that the Attorney General’s office has filed a lawsuit against 35 law firms and two debt collectors as the latest stage in an ongoing process of legal action.

The lawsuit alleges that the firms did not properly notify people that they were defendants in a lawsuit. As a result, the complaint states, they were unable to appear in court on their own behalf, and the cases often resulted in default judgments against those identified as debtors.

According to the suit, the listed firms and debt collectors hired a process server, American Legal Process, to provide notification to defendants. However, the lawsuit alleges that the server failed to do so — a tactic known as “sewer service.” Instead of serving the defendants, the complaint claims American Legal Process (ALP) falsified documents, certifying that the people had been notified.

“ALP’s scheme undermined the foundation of this (legal) system and denied thousands of individuals their day in court,” New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said.

The lawsuit is an attempt to throw out the default judgments made when defendants failed to show up in court, and to return the money lost by those defendants, Cuomo said.