BigLaw Associate Compensation Soars To $240k for 1st Years, $550k For 8th Years

Here is the latest associate compensation at Cravath and at least 27 other law firms:

Year	Salary	Bonus	Total
1st	225,000	15,000	240,000
2nd	235,000	20,000	255,000
3rd	260,000	30,000	290,000
4th	310,000	57,500	367,500
5th	365,000	75,000	440,000
6th	390,000	90,000	480,000
7th	420,000	105,000	525,000
8th	435,000	115,000	550,000

According to Law.com and Above the Law, Akin Gump, Baker Botts, Baker McKenzie, Cleary Gottlieb, Covington & Burling, Davis Polk, Debevoise, Dechert, Fried Frank, Gibson Dunn, Hogan Lovells, Holwell Shuster, Kirkland, Mayer Brown, McDermott, Will & Emery, Norton Rose Fulbright, O’Melveny, Paul Hastings, Paul Weiss, Proskauer, Simpson Thacher, Skadden, Sidley Austin, Wachtell, Vinson & Elkins, Willkie Farr, and Yetter Coleman have matched Cravath.

Bloomberg Law, Cravath Salary Raises Pressure Rivals Who Can’t Afford Match:

Cravath Swaine & Moore’s move to raise associate salaries beyond the scale set by its rival Milbank pressures less-profitable firms to ponder pay bumps they can’t afford.

While firms in the top tiers of revenue and profitability are likely to follow Cravath’s lead—and several already have—others in the industry are ill-positioned to do so, said Michelle Fivel, a legal recruiter at Hatch Henderson Fivel. “This could be the year” the pool of firms following Cravath shrinks, she said.

The prospect of Cravath-type raises will “stress a lot of firms,” said Peter Zeughauser, a law firm management consultant at the Zeughauser Group. Some will avoid such raises and suffer the fall-out of “more poaching” from firms that can pay top compensation, he said.

ABA Journal, Associate Pay Hikes Gather Steam After Cravath Announcement; Which Law Firms Have Matched?