NY To $180K: The Raises Spread To Summer Associates!
What is your firm doing for summer associates and incoming associates in the Class of 2016?
A summer celebrates his new salary of $3,500 a week.
Yesterday, Paul Weiss was the second major law firm to publicly announce that it would be matching the new Cravath salary scale. At the time of its announcement, Paul Weiss was the only firm to explicitly state that incoming associates in Class of 2016 would see their base salaries raised to $180,000. The firm’s memo from chairman Brad Karp can be found here. (Perhaps this move inspired Milbank, the first major firm to match, to email its incoming associates (see the 3:37 p.m. update) and reassure them they’d be getting the new rate.)
After we noted that Paul Weiss specifically mentioned salaries for incoming associates, we received a flood of emails from members of the Class of 2016. Prior to the Paul Weiss announcement, it had been largely assumed that other firms, including Cravath, would reward their incoming associates with the $180,000 salary scale, especially given the July 1, 2016, effective date of the pay raise. Nevertheless, people began to worry that their firms would not increase their pay, perhaps forcing them to remain on the $160,000 salary scale since they’d already signed their employment contracts.
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As if the question of salaries for incoming associates in the Class of 2016 wasn’t enough, summer associates started to wonder if they, too, would be bumped up financially by their firms. Thus far in the 2016 associate salary wars, we hadn’t heard a peep about what Biglaw firms would be doing for their summer associates — until last night.
Paul Weiss may be forcing the market’s hand, because at about 6:45 p.m. last night, the firm’s summer associates received an exciting email from Brad Karp letting them know that effective July 1, their base salaries would be increased to $3,500 per week, thus applying the Cravath raise to summer associates. Karp noted that this move was “in keeping with [the firm’s] commitment that [its] compensation levels be at the top of the market.”
Karp’s language implies Paul Weiss is being a follower (its usual role, as we noted yesterday, citing a PW source). But in this case, it’s actually being a compensation leader — as far as we know, no other Biglaw firm has yet applied the new starting salary to summer associates. How many other firms will follow suit?
Congratulations to all Paul Weiss summer associates! Not only is your firm the first to explicitly state that its Cravath salary raise applies to incoming associates, but it’s the first firm to demonstrate that it truly values the talents of its summer associates.
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What is your firm doing for summer associates and incoming associates in the Class of 2016? Do you want your firm to be known as a market leader or a market loser?
On-campus interviewing season is right around the corner, and the salary moves firms make this summer could seriously impact their recruitment efforts this fall. If you want your firm to remain at the top of the market and attract top-of-the-market talent from the nation’s best law schools, we’d humbly suggest that you give your summer associates a raise and make your intentions known as to your incoming associates’ salaries.
Remember, we are covering this trend extensively, so please drop us a line — text (646-820-8477) or email (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches Cravath”) — when you know of another firm making a compensation move. 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.
UPDATE (11:30 a.m.): Cleary Gottlieb is paying its summer associates at the new rate.
UPDATE (12:12 p.m.): As we’ve said before, three makes a trend. Simpson Thacher is also paying its summers on the new scale.
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UPDATE (12:58 p.m.): Both Milbank Tweed and Cahill Gordon are paying their summer associates at the new rate.
(Turn the page for the Paul Weiss summer associate email, from chairman Brad Karp.)
Earlier: NY To $180K: Another Big New York Firm Matches Cravath
Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
