Jones Robb interview questions

I submitted my resume to O’Brien Jones after reviewing an advertisement on IP360 job board. I interviewed with three partners. They are former employees of Finnegan Henderson. They were pleasant and asked questions that are common for my industry. They did not appear to have a lot of work in my technology area, but they had just extended an offer to a telecom/EE patent attorney. During the interview, I did not think that they had enough work and the partners were not doing enough billable work (partner to associate/agent ratio was too high for a start-up, partners spending a lot of time on marketing and BD and not billing). Months after the interview, I found out that their firm had split up. During my interview, they pressed me for information about my expected salary. My response was: Are you offering me a job? When do you anticipate me starting? What is the billable hour requirement? They responded that that they needed my salary information to assess if I was well suited for their firm. They asked that I send a follow-up e-mail including my salary expectations based on their minimum billable hour requirement (which I believe was 1900 hours). I find this practice highly questionable and unprofessional. O’Brien Jones is an employer and should have an idea of what they pay their associates. Indeed, the firm employed six to ten associates at the time of the interview. Collectively, the partners at O’Brien Jones have several decades of experience as patent lawyers. Further, they are aware and were once part of Finnegan’s lock-step salary, which is widely used in patent law firms and easily researched. It is not that hard to figure out what a Patent Attorney who is “X” years of out law school is expecting and then adjust their salary based on your firm’s hours and expectations. I understand that there are limits to what a firm can pay an associate. Please be clear about this. In my follow-up e-mail, I thanked the three partners (who were incidentally females) for their time and expressed interest in working at O’Brien Jones. I emphasized my experience. I provided them with my proposed salary range that would be based on an average salary that is awarded to an attorney who graduated in 200X (years out of law school) who works in the D.C. market. I did not provide an actual number because no offer was extended. Their response was -- we hope to make a decision in the “next month or so.” As a kicker, they added, if you have not heard from us please let us know of your decision timelines. They did not reject me outright but never contacted me again. Since my interview, O’Brien Jones has shedded two out of the three partners who interviewed me and several associates. The firm changed their name to Jones Robb.