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The American Lawyer Midlevel Associates Survey: Open Thread

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The results of the Midlevel Associate Survey of the American Lawyer are out. You can access the charts here (subscription, we think; but we’re guessing most of you interested in this have access through your firms). And even though 2Ls are still several years away from being mid-level associates at law firms, those of you about to go through fall recruiting may still find these rankings to be of interest.
Am Law describes the Midlevel Associates Survey as follows:

Midlevel associates are generally regarded as the sweet spot in a law firm’s financial structure–thus the near obsession with retaining them. In our annual midlevel survey, 7259 third-, fourth-, and fifth-year associates from 180 firms gave us a glimpse of their working lives.

We like how the American Lawyer, consistent with the worldview of its Biglaw partner readers, views midlevels as essentially billing machines with legs — “the sweet spot in a law firm’s financial structure.”
The ten highest-scoring firms in the survey, plus collected links and your chance to comment, after the jump.


The survey is accompanied by an interesting article by Dan DiPietro, client head of The Law Firm Group of Citi Private Bank, arguing against lockstep compensation for associates. He writes:

[Firms should] abandon the lockstep compensation approach toward associate pay in favor of a system that aligns pay with the performance of the individual associate and the firm, and significantly shifts the bulk of total compensation to this variable component. A performance-based pay structure would go a long way toward helping firms keep top legal talent, and it would serve firms better financially….

Lockstep is an illogical, ill-conceived approach to pay that addresses none of the issues faced by today’s associates, who bring a wide range of goals and degrees of commitment to their jobs. Neither does lockstep help firms address other concerns, such as client complaints about what they consider to be excessive associate pay and the expense and inconvenience of high associate turnover. Finally, lockstep complicates tough economic times. Associates are expensive, and with a locked-in pay structure, they can become a real financial burden during a slowdown. In fact, for many firms, this chicken will come home to roost in 2008.

Check out the complete article over here.
Here are the ten firms with the happiest midlevel associates:
AMERICAN LAWYER — 2008 MIDLEVEL ASSOCIATES SURVEY — TOP TEN FIRMS NATIONWIDE
2008 Rank — 2007 Rank — Firm, Location — Overall Score — Respondents and Response Rate
1 — 5 — Nutter McClennen, Boston 4.607 17 (65%)
2 — 6 — Miles & Stockbridge, Baltimore 4.540 11 (42%)
3 — 27 — Finnegan, Henderson, Washington, D.C. 4.444 19 (36%)
4 — 8 — Faegre & Benson, Minneapolis 4.405 14 (16%)
5 — 28 — Patterson Belknap, New York 4.349 18 (43%)
6 — 38 — Gibson, Dunn, National 4.311 64 (27%)
7 — 31 — Latham & Watkins, National 4.300 225 (36%)
8 — 37 — Thompson Hine, Cleveland 4.292 12 (18%)
9 — 11 — Benesch, Friedlander, Cleveland 4.287 18 (95%)
10 — 7 — Thompson Coburn, St. Louis 4.280 25 (48%)
So how did your firm fare in the rankings? Think it should have done better — or worse?
Sound off, in the comments.
ASSOCIATES SURVEY 2008: Leaving Lockstep Behind [American Lawyer (subscription)]
Ranking The Firms: Collected Charts [American Lawyer (subscription)]
2008 Associates Survey: Firms Listed A to Z [American Lawyer (subscription)]
2008 Associates Survey: By City [American Lawyer (subscription)]

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