Lawyer Pay

CA Associates Look to Bonuses as Pay Holds Firm

Some California associates are hoping that New York law firms will raise annual starting pay to $200,000, leading to another round of salary wars. But many observers say a cooling economy is likely to keep new associate pay at the big California firms at $160,000, the Recorder reports. In view…

Oct 8, 2007 12:54 PM CDT

Pay Doesn’t Match Work for Managing Partners

Managing partners in the San Francisco Bay area often work harder than they did before they took the job, but they don’t make any more money. The Recorder did an informal survey of 23 managing partners and found 70 percent work harder but only 22 percent make more money. “It’s…

Oct 5, 2007 2:28 PM CDT

$160,000 for a Few New Associates in CT

A few national law firms are paying top dollar to new associates in Connecticut . The Connecticut Law Tribune says these law firms are paying $160,000 to first-years: – Bingham McCutchen in Hartford. – Kelley, Drye & Warren in Stamford. – Dechert in Hartford. – Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels in…

Oct 5, 2007 1:51 PM CDT

Pay Cuts for Top Partners at London Firm?

Although at least three quarters of the partners at Ashurst voted recently to approve a change in the London-based law firm’s lockstep compensation structure, many are now reportedly nervous about how the new pay scale will be implemented. “Around 75 of Ashurst’s most senior partners will see their position at…

Oct 4, 2007 5:36 PM CDT

Manhattan Work at Mumbai Prices

Inside India’s hottest legal outsourcing team

Oct 1, 2007 8:43 PM CDT

NY 1st-Year Pay Plan: $250K, But No Jobs

Observers are waiting to see what the next salary move will be in New York City, where law firms that tried to surge ahead on first-year pay are now neck-and-neck with competitors from other major cities. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s move earlier this year to raise starting pay to $160,000…

Oct 1, 2007 7:41 PM CDT

Such a Deal

Does Perkins Coie have the best time-money solution?

Oct 1, 2007 6:12 PM CDT

NY Lawyer Navigates Dating on the Cheap

Lori Weiss, a 29-year-old New York lawyer, makes more money than a lot of her dates, but she tries not to show it. She hides shopping bags and quickly clips the price tags off new clothes so her dates won’t feel threatened by the income disparity, the New York Times…

Sep 24, 2007 6:21 PM CDT

Bench Beset by Record Resignations, Cash a Factor

Federal judges are resigning in record numbers, often lured by higher paying jobs in the private sector. Federal trial-level judges make $165,200 a year, about $5,000 more than new lawyers at New York’s big law firms and 50 percent less than senior law professors, USA Today reports. Since 2000, 51…

Sep 24, 2007 2:09 PM CDT

Law School Secret: Bad Job Market

The job market is tough for many recent law grads, who are pointing their fingers at law schools for failing to warn them about their dim prospects. Top pay for new associates at the big law firms is $160,000, but most beginning lawyers make far less at the same time…

Sep 24, 2007 11:04 AM CDT

S&C Senior Associates to Reap Extra Bonus

Sullivan & Cromwell hopes to hold on to senior associates with a plan to pay supplemental bonuses tied to the law firm’s financial performance. One partner told the New York Law Journal that the bonuses will probably range from $15,000 for associates in their fifth year at the firm and…

Sep 20, 2007 10:41 AM CDT

CLOs Feast on Meaty Stock Options

In-house lawyers are taking home bigger paychecks and bigger bonuses, according to a 2007 survey by legal consulting firm Altman Weil. But bigger still are the stock options some receive. The median annual salary for chief legal officers in 2007 was $300,000 and the median bonus was $157,400, up 14.3…

Sep 19, 2007 6:20 PM CDT

Another Atlanta Firm to Pay $145K

Another Atlanta-based law firm has jumped aboard the associate-salary-increase bandwagon. Kilpatrick Stockton has agreed to raise first-year pay to $145,000 as of Jan. 1, 2008, in accord with the latest wave of salary increases announced by other big Atlanta firms beginning last month, according to the Fulton County Daily Report.…

Sep 14, 2007 9:56 PM CDT

Starting at $40K, FL Jobs a Stepping-Stone

Young attorneys working as assistant prosecutors and public defenders in South Florida make only about $40,000 annually when they first start work. So, within five years, most have moved on to other jobs. In Broward and Miami-Dade counties, roughly 20 percent a year depart for greener work assignments elsewhere, and…

Sep 11, 2007 7:01 PM CDT

NJ Firms Raise Associate Salaries

While they’re not at the absolute top of the associate salary scale, a number of law firms in New Jersey are nonetheless raising starting pay for first-years significantly. Although some firms are holding the line, others say they are upping the associate ante by as much as 10 to 15…

Sep 10, 2007 10:52 PM CDT