
A salary war that was started by Milbank LLP on June 10, saw more and more firms join the race to retain and lure the best talent. To summarize, Milbank offered an initial salary raise to its associates bumping up the pay scale for first-year associates to $, What followed was an outburst of pay raises by firms who tried to match and surpass Milbank.
Firms including Davis Polk and Cravath had offered an even higher pay raise to their associates. However, Milbank LLP then announced a re-raise for its associates on June 29, The firm’s new pay scale ranges from $, for the classes of and to $, for the class of Many elite law firms have continued the trend by making pay raise announcements since then.
Magic Circle law firms also joined the salary race to compete with other big players in the market. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer became the first Magic Circle law firm to react to salary raises by Milbank. The firm has announced a new salary scale for its United States-based associates. Associates from the class year will be paid a base salary of $, Associates from the class of and classes senior to will be paid an annual base salary of $,
London-based Magic Circle firm Allen & Overy LLP has also announced salary increases for its associates based in Los Angeles, Washington, District of Columbia, New York, and Sao Paulo. The firm’s new pay structure ranges from $, for the class of to $, for the class of The firm announced that it will separately communicate the compensation for more senior associates and counsel.
The next Magic Circle law firm to offer salary raises is London-based Clifford Chance LLP. From July 1, , the firm’s United States-based associates will receive higher base salaries depending on their class year. The new pay scale starts from a base pay of $, for the classes of and and goes up to $, for the class of and classes senior to Additionally, summer law clerks will be paid at a semi-monthly rate of $8,
The latest Magic Circle firm to join this race is Linklaters LLP, a multinational law firm headquartered in London. The firm announced that its United States based associates will now earn higher base salaries. Associates from the class of will earn a base salary of $, and associates from the class of will receive $, as base salary. The base pay for the class of will be $,
Washington, District of Columbia-based law firm Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick PLLC has overtaken the likes of Milbank, Davis Polk, and Cravath by offering a pay raise ranging from $20, to $25, The firm announced the pay raise through a memo announcing a $20, raise for first-year and second-year associates who will receive a salary of $, Third-year and fourth-year associates will receive a base pay of $, and $, respectively. The base pay for fifth-year associates has been fixed at $, and the same for associates from the sixth-year and above is fixed at $, This massive pay rise will be effective from July 01, It is also noteworthy that the firm’s pay schedule is based on the years of experience of the associates and not their class years.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, an international law firm based in New York with gross revenue of $2,,, in , also announced a salary increase. Associates from the classes of and above will now receive a base salary of $, The base pay ranges from $, for the class of to $, for the class of The new pay for the classes of and is set at $, and $, respectively. Skadden, ranked at No. 5 in the Am Law list, also reduced the minimum experience required to be considered for promotion to counsel from years to years out of law school.
McKool Smith, a law firm with over trial lawyers, has also announced that associates will receive a pay raise ranging from $15, to $25, based on their class year. Associates from class years and will receive a salary bump of $15, which will bring their new salary to $, and $, respectively. The new salaries range from $, for the class year to $, for the class year
Covington and Burling LLP, ranked twenty-fifth on the latest Am Law rankings with gross revenue of over $1 billion in also announced a salary raise for all associates based in the firm’s United States offices. The firm, like Davis Polk, will offer a base salary of $, to associates from the incoming class of Associates from the class of will receive a base pay of $, and the salary for associates from the class of has gone up to $, The firm also announced that summer associate salaries will also be raised to match the salary of the class of This new pay scale will be effective from July 1,
Irell & Manella LLP, a California-based law firm with gross revenue of $,, in , announced that it will be exceeding the pay scale set by Davis Polk by offering $, to the class of and first-year associates. The rest of the pay scale ranges from $, for second-year associates to $, for eighth-year associates.
Similarly, Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP, a leading litigation boutique law firm based in California, also announced that it will be raising the salaries of its associates to compete with big players like Milbank and Cravath. According to the firm’s new pay scale, associates from the class of will receive a base salary of $, and it goes up to $, for the class of The firm’s senior associates from classes of and above will receive a salary of $,
Desmarais LLP, a New York-based intellectual property boutique law firm, has announced that it will exceed the Big Law grid by at least $5, per associate. The firm’s new pay scale will range from $, for first-year associates to $, for eighth-year associates. This new pay grid will be effective from July 1,
New York-based boutique Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna, with a focus on insurance recovery and commercial litigation, has also announced a salary raise to hire the best talent in the legal market. The firm’s new salary structure will allow associates from the class of to receive a base salary of $, Associates from the class of will now be paid a $, salary and associates from the class of will be paid $, as salary. The firm’s senior associates from the classes of and above will be paid a salary of $, The firm has already expanded into a team of 22 lawyers within six months of its formation and this salary raise will only help the firm to grow more.
Hueston Hennigan LLP, a California-based litigation boutique firm also announced a salary hike for its associates and counsel. The firm will be paying $, as base salary to associates from the class of and the pay will go up to a base salary of $, to the associates of the classes of and above.
Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, another boutique law firm based in New York, announced a salary increase for first-year associates. From July 1, , the firm’s first-year associates will earn $, as base salary and many other firm members at all levels will receive performance and tenure-based salary hikes.
Selendy & Gay PLLC, a leading New York-based boutique litigation firm, has also announced a higher pay scale for associates. The firm’s new pay scale will range from $, for the class year to $, for the class year The firm has also announced that it will also pay significant year-end bonuses to eligible associates.
Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP, a litigation boutique firm based in Delaware, has also joined the Big Law firms in offering a salary hike to associates. The new pay scale ranges from $, for the class of to $, for the class of
Joining this list of boutique firms is Wilkinson Stekloff LLP, a District of Columbia-based litigation boutique firm. Wilkinson Stekloff will now offer a base salary of $, to the class of and the base salary will go up to $, for the class of The firm’s senior associates from the classes of and above will be paid a salary of $, It surely is interesting to see how boutique firms are competing and even surpassing big players in the salary market in an endeavor to recruit and retain the best associates.
Coming back to bigger law firms, Goodwin Procter LLP, a global law firm ranked 23rd on the Am Law rankings and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, will match the Davis Polk pay scale and offer higher salaries to its United States-based associates. The firm’s pay scale will range from $, for associates from the class year to $, for associates from the class years and above.
Morrison & Foerster LLP, a California-based international law firm that ranked thirty-fourth in the Am Law list with gross revenue of $1,,, in The new salary scale offered by the firm starts from $, for the class of and escalates based on the experience of the associates. The associates from the class year will receive a base pay of $, The associates from the class of will receive a salary of $,
Kirkland & Ellis LLP, the world’s largest law firm in terms of revenue, amassing gross revenue of $4,,, in , has joined the Big Law race to offer higher salaries. The firm will be matching the $, pay scale for associates from the class of Associates from the class of will receive $, as base salary. The firm’s new pay structure will be effective from July 1, , for all United States-based associates.
Sidley Austin LLP, an Illinois-based law firm with over 2, lawyers worldwide and ranked sixth in the latest Am Law ranking, announced on June 21 that it will be bumping up its pay scale for associates. The firm’s associates from class years and will now earn $, as base salary. Associates from class years and will earn $, and $, respectively. The base salary for the class year has also been increased to $,
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, a global law firm with over attorneys, ranks at number 7 in the most recent Am Law list. The firm has announced new annual base salaries for associates effective from July 1, The new base pay ranges from $, for the class year to $, for the class year
White & Case LLP, another top 10 law firm according to the Am Law rankings, has announced salary increases ranging from $15, to $25, Associates from class years and will receive a $15, hike taking their new annual base salary to $, and $, respectively. Associates from the class of will receive a new annual base pay of $,, $25, more in comparison to the previous base salary of $,
Hogan Lovells, a leading American-British law firm earning over $2 billion in revenue, communicated the new pay scale to its associates on June The new base salary for the class of has been set at $, Associates from the class of will receive a base pay of , and associates from class years and above will receive a $25, hike, taking their base salary to $,
New York-based international law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP will also be bumping up the salaries of associates from July 1, The associates from class years and will earn $, as base salary and the new salary for the class year has been set at $, The firm’s senior associate from class years and above will receive $, as base pay.
Gunderson Dettmer, a Silicon Valley-based law firm with over lawyers across offices globally, has also come forward and raised associate salaries. The firm’s new pay scale provides a base salary of $, and $, for class years and respectively. The new base pay goes up to $, for the class year
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, an international law firm with over attorneys worldwide, has announced that it will be offering a salary raise ranging from $12, to $25, based upon the experience level of the associates. The firm will offer a base salary of $, to entry level associates. The base pay for associate level 1 is set at $, and goes up to $, for associate level 3. Managing associates will be paid a base salary ranging from $, for managing associate level 1 to $, for managing associate level 3. The salary for counsel level 1 and counsel level 2 will be $, and $, respectively.
Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, a Big Law firm with gross revenue of $,, in , has announced a performance-based salary hike for its full-time associates in the United States. According to the firm’s new pay scale, associates from the class year will earn $, as salary and it will go all the way up to $, for associates from the class year
Paul Hastings LLP, a leading international law firm ranked twenty- on the latest Am Law ranking, has joined the salary race. The firm’s senior-most category of associates from class years or above will receive a new base pay of $, and the base pay for junior associates from the class of has been bumped up to $, The new changes will be effective from July 1,
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, the world’s largest law firm focusing exclusively on business litigation and arbitration, announced that it will be offering salary increases to associates and of counsel from July 1, Matching Davis Polk’s pay scale, Quinn Emanuel will offer $, as base pay to the class of The base pay will increase based upon the class years of the associates. Associates from the class of will receive a base pay of $,
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a California-based law firm specializing in intellectual property and corporate law, also announced salary increases for associates and of counsel in the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and China. The new pay scale offers an annual base pay of $, to the incoming fall associates. The annual base salary for first-year associates has been bumped up to $, Eighth-year associates will receive $, as salary. The firm also announced that the salary changes for associates beyond the class year will be communicated separately.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a firm with over attorneys worldwide and ranking twelfth in the latest Am Law list, joined the list of elite firms to offer a pay raise to associates. The firm will pay $, as annual base pay for the class of and the pay scale goes up to $, for the class of The firm will determine the salaries for associates and counsel classes senior to on an individual basis.
Norton Rose Fulbright, an international law firm that ranked 13th in the latest Am Law ranking, has also announced salary increases for associates in some of its United States offices. The firm’s New York, Texas, District of Columbia, and California-based associates will receive salary increases effective from July 1, Associates from the class year will be earning the highest base pay of $, while associates from the class year will receive $, as annual base salary.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, a New York-based international law firm with more than attorneys in offices worldwide, is set to match David Polk’s new pay scale. Simpson Thacher will now offer a base salary of $, to associates from the class of The firm’s crop of junior associates from the class of will earn an annual base salary of $, The firm will deal with the salaries of associates from class years beyond individually.
Fish & Richardson P.C., a global intellectual property law firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, announced a fresh salary grid effective from July 1, The new pay structure offers salary raises to associates based on their level of experience. A1 level associates will now earn a base salary of $, and A7 level associates will receive an annual base pay of $,
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, a full-service, global law firm with a focus on energy, financial services, and real estate industries, also announced salary increases for on-track associates, counsel, and special counsel in its United States offices. The revised salary scale provides that the class of will receive a base annual salary of $, and the class of will receive a salary of $, The firm’s counsel will receive a revised base pay of $, and special counsel will receive percent above their current base pay.
Another Big Law firm to join the wage war is WilmerHale, a Washington, District of Columbia-based law firm that ranked twenty-nighth in the latest Am Law rankings. The firm’s new salary scale ranges from $, for first-year associates of the class year to $, for third-year associates. The firm’s fourth-year senior associate base salary is set at $, and the same for sixth-year senior associates is $, The firm’s first-year counsel will receive a base pay of $, and second-year counsel will be paid a base salary of $,
Schulte Roth & Zabel, LLP, an Am Law law firm with gross revenue of $,,, also announced salary increases for associates. Associates from the class of will receive a base annual salary of $, and associates from the class of will receive a base annual pay of $, Surprisingly, the firm also announced a pay raise for the associates of the class of who will be paid $, as an annual salary.
Seward & Kissel LLP, a firm with a primary focus on the financial services industry, will also be joining the likes of Davis Polk by paying an annual base salary of $, to the associates from the class of The new salary for the class of has been set at $, The firm will pay a salary of $, to the class of The firm will also update its bonus structure soon.
Munger, Tolles, & Olson LLP, a leading California-based law firm, announced that it will be offering salary increases ranging from $12, to $25, to associates. The new pay scale ranges from $, for the class year to $, for the class years and above. The firm’s new pay scale is effective from July 1,
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, a firm ranked at forty-sixth position in the latest Am Law rankings, has also announced a higher pay scale for associates. From July 1, , the firm’s associates from the class of will earn $, and the base pay for associates from the class of and classes senior to will rise to $,
Perkins & Coie LLP, a multinational firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington, has announced that associates from the class of will now earn a higher base pay of $, Associates from the class of will receive $, as base salary. The base pay for the class of has been raised to $,
King & Spalding LLP, ranking twenty-first on the Am Law rankings, has also announced that associates will earn a higher base pay from July 1, The new pay scale will allow associates from the class of or classes senior to to earn $, as base pay. The class of will now earn a base pay of $,
Shearman & Sterling LLP, with a team of more than lawyers around the world, announced that it will be raising the salaries for associates and counsel. Associates from class years and will earn a base salary of $, and $, respectively. Associates from the class year will receive a salary hike of $25, and will earn $, as base pay. The firm will also increase the base salaries for counsel by $15,
The relatively smaller law firm, Brown Rudnick LLP, with over attorneys, has also announced salary increases for associates. The new salary scale ranges from $, for the class of to $, for the class of The salaries for summer associates will also be increased. The new pay scale is effective from July 1,
One of the latest firms to join this race is Reed Smith LLP, a global law firm with over 30 offices worldwide and ranked at the twenty-sixth position in the latest Am Law ranking. The firm has announced that first-year associates will now receive $, as base pay. The firm’s larger salary restructuring scheme aims to end regional differences in salaries.
Alston & Bird LLP, an international law firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, has announced that it will be offering a higher salary to associates from July 1. The new pay scale will allow associates from the class of to make $, as base pay and associates from the class of will receive $, as base salary.
Smyser Kaplan & Veselka LLP, a Texas-based litigation boutique firm, has also announced a salary increase for associates. The firm’s associates from the classes of and will receive a base salary of $, and the associates from the the class of will receive a base pay of $,
Glenn Agre Bergman & Fuentes LLP, a boutique law firm specializing in general commercial litigation, white collar crimes, and bankruptcy matters, has joined the list of law firms that have offered salary raises to associates. From July 1, the firm will pay $, as base pay to the class of and $, as base salary for the class of and classes senior to
Susman Godfrey, a litigation boutique headquartered in Houston, Texas, has offered salary raises to associates and has surpassed the scale set by Davis Polk in doing so. The firm’s new salary scale will offer a base salary of $, to the class of and it will go up to $, for the class of
For Part-1 of the law firm salary raise saga, visit: https://www.jdjournal.com//06/30/the-law-firm-salary-raise-saga-part-1/
AmLaw Salary, associate bonuses, BigLaw salary, law firm salary, law firm salary war, salary raise
Higher pay, but fewer jobs at largest law firms
Salaries for summer associates are rising, but most predict fewer jobs moving forward.
The National Association of Law Placement, or NALP, reported that the median salary for first- and second-year summer associates is $2, per week, and $2, per week for third-year summer associates, an 11 percent increase over the prior year.
The American Lawyer released its own salary data, showing that summer associates at the nation’s largest law firms is $3, per week. This is comparable to what NALP reported for law firms with to attorneys — $3, per week.
Four law firms tied for the highest summer associate pay, The American Lawyer reported, with a weekly rate of $3, Those firms were Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson; Dechert; Kramer Levin & Frankel; and Cooley.
The bad news, however, is that law firms are hiring fewer summer associates and associates.
"A majority of firms are telling us that their partners are not busy enough," Eric Seegar, a consultant at Altman Well, told The American Lawyer. "In firms where partners are having a hard time keeping themselves busy, they have less work to throw to associates."
The number of summer associate positions declined by percent, according to The American Lawyer.
Data gathered by NALP confirms that summer offers are on the decline for law firms of all sizes, not just at the big law firms. The NALP Associate Salary Survey report found that 50 percent of law firms were making fewer summer associate job offers for Summer than in the previous year.
Starting salaries for new attorneys has also risen, but the median remained flat. A number of law firms, primarily in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, have increased starting salaries to $,
But regional law firms have not increased to match these big firms.
“It’s not what I expected to see,” said James Leipold, NALP’s executive director. “After all of the publicity surrounding the move to $,, I fully expected to see the national median starting salary for law firms move upwards, but what the data reveal is that for the most part only the largest firms in the largest legal markets made the move, and while many offices are paying $, to start, many are not. The result is upward movement in some law firm size bands while the national median has remain unchanged.”
Region and geography played important roles in salary variances. The NALP survey analyzed 30 cities and additional states and regions not encompassed by those cities. The overall median salary for first-year associates in firms of more than lawyers was $,, but ranged from $90, in firms of 50 or fewer to $, in firms of more than lawyers.
As more law firms grow through mergers and acquisitions, the largest law firms are not as similar to one another as they used to be, the report stated. There are firms with more than lawyers that consist of smaller regional offices, many of which do not pay starting salaries of $, In turn, many large law firm starting salaries fall below that salary level.
As more big law firms adopt the $, starting salary, the median first-year associate salary will likely increase as well. Law firms made a similar move in to increase starting salaries to $,, but it took several years to become the standard starting salary in most large law firms, the NALP report stated.
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Law Firms
Cravath announces associate bonuses; did the firm top Milbank?
By Debra Cassens Weiss
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Image from Shutterstock.com.
Associates who were hoping that Cravath would set the standard with higher bonuses this year will be disappointed with the law firm’s Monday announcement.
Cravath is paying the same amount as last year and the same amount that Milbank will pay, Above the Law reports. Cravath’s associate bonuses will range from $15, to $,, depending on years of service.
“So, for the time being at least, Cravath is letting Milbank set the standard,” Above the Law writes. “It seems likely that now that these two compensation powerhouses have weighed in, the rest of the industry will fall in line.”
The bonuses will be paid on Dec.
Base salaries for associates at Cravath in will range from $, to $,, the amount the firm started paying associates in July
Here is Cravath’s bonus and salary scale:
Class of – $15, bonus (pro rated), and $, base salary
Class of – $15, bonus, and $, base salary
Class of – $25, bonus, and $, base salary
Class of – $50, bonus, and $, base salary
Class of – $65, bonus, and $, base salary
Class of – $80, bonus, and $, base salary
Class of – $90, bonus, and $, base salary
Class of – $, bonus, and $, base salary
Above the Law previously pointed out that associates will be paid less in total bonuses for because they didn’t receive summer bonuses as they did last year.
Give us feedback, share a story tip or update, or report an error.
Davis Polk Boosts Big Law Associate Salary Scale to $, (4)
Davis Polk & Wardwell has beaten the associate attorney pay scale announced by Milbank on Thursday with its own set of salary raises that pay associates $, to $, per year, pushing several competitors to match it.
Davis Polk cited “exceptionally high” activity levels across the firm in a memo viewed by Bloomberg Law on Friday and noted the new scale will take effect July 1.
The announcement is the latest salvo in a salary race that Milbank kicked off by announcing it would raise starting salaries for associates from $, to $,, and give its most senior associates a pay bump from $, to $, This was the first across-the-board salary raise Big Law associates have seen since , and comes at a time when the competition for talent has reached a fever pitch.
McDermott Will & Emery, which announced Thursday that it would raise salaries to match the Milbank scale, is bumping pay again to keep up with Davis Polk, Chairman Ira Coleman told Bloomberg Law.
Baker McKenzie has also matched the Davis Polk salary scale for its U.S. associates, a Friday afternoon firm statement said. So did Proskauer Rose, according a firm memo viewed by Bloomberg Law.
Davis Polk has lately emerged as a compensation leader, and has also been an early mover on associate bonuses since the pandemic began. The firm is coming off of a year in which it rode high demand in practice areas like capital markets, bankruptcy, and regulatory to major financial success, and even loosened its strict lockstep pay system , a move that makes it a more attractive lateral landing spot.

According to the latest AmLaw data, the firm grew revenue by more than 22% to nearly $ billion in It also saw profits per equity partner spike by more than 40% to $ million.
The nation’s largest law firms have been providing incentives to their associates to work hard for long hours over the last 18 months, as the volume of work, at least on the corporate side, has continued to surge despite the global coronavirus pandemic.
Chief among these incentives have been bonuses, and the most senior Big Law associates this year are positioned to earn up to $, in extra cash, beyond their base pay.
Last year, Davis Polk set the pace on associate special bonuses, creating a scale that ranged from $7, for first-year associates to up to $40, for the most senior, in addition to conventional year-end bonuses.
The firm raised the bar again for bonuses in March , announcing a two-part set of extra payments that total from $12, to $64, depending on associate seniority.
In both cases, Davis Polk leapfrogged over Big Law competitors who had revealed bonuses early, but set them at a lower range initially.
Davis Polk has also used benefits like wine packages and fitness equipment an other luxury gifts as a reward for associates.
It’s likely that at least some large Big Law firms will again follow Davis Polk’s lead on pay. Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, and Winston & Strawn, have all matched Milbank’s salary scale since it was announced, according to memos from those firms viewed by Bloomberg Law.
The question remains as to whether boosted salaries and bigger bonuses will be enough to retain associates, who are also experiencing high rates of burnoutcombined with the many stressors of living and working through a global pandemic.
Whatever their effect on associates, salary raises will remain on a firm’s balance sheet indefinitely, as unlike bonuses and gifts, they are a fixed cost.
-Meghan Tribe and Chris Opfer contributed to this report
2017 summer associate salary
7th Year Salaries and Bonuses of the Top Law Firms
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