The “mojo hand,” bearing cash.
It looks like star IP litigator Matt Powers is giving his associates the “mojo hand.” His IP litigation powerhouse, Tensegrity Law Group, just announced that it’s adopting the familiar $180K pay scale. Like the Cravath version of the scale, it tops out at $315K for eighth-year associates.
Here’s what one source said:
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Associates seem happy with the move, but it was also generally expected — the firm has always kept up with New York market base and has used end-of-year and special successful event bonuses as the tools for giving above-market recognition.
There was some discussion among associates (and likely among the partnership as well) about whether TLG would match the [above-market] Desmarais or Susman Godfrey scales [UPDATE (6/25/2016, 4:10 p.m.): Susman’s scale is consistent with, not above, the Cravath scale; see the update], but the general view here is that would likely have only shifted $20k from end-of-year bonuses into base salary. Associates seem convinced that our total comp will remain competitive with (if not above) associates there.
That sounds like a safe bet. We’ve previously reported on Tensegrity’s generous, above-market bonuses.
The firm doesn’t have a summer program, so there’s no issue of summers getting raises or not. And the hot topic of counsel salaries also doesn’t apply to Tensegrity, which apparently doesn’t have any counsel.
The full memo appears on the next page. Congratulations to the Tensegrity team; the news isn’t surprising, but it’s nice to receive anyway.
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We are covering compensation moves closely, so please drop us a line — text (646-820-8477) or email (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches Cravath”) — when you know of another firm raising pay. Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file. All sources are kept strictly confidential.
Earlier: Associate Bonus Watch: Small Firm, HUGE Bonuses!
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].