Some Clients Are Super Pissed About Associate Raises

This client sees no reason for associate raises.

By Kathryn Rubino on June 16, 2016 3:13 pm

While we respect the firms’ judgment about what best serves their long-term competitive interests, we are aware of no market-driven basis for such an increase and do not expect to bear the costs of the firms’ decisions.

–David Leitch, Bank of America’s global general counsel, in an email to an undisclosed list of law firms reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Bank of America (and other corporate clients) might be pissed that firms are raising salaries for the first time in almost a decade, but you know what? At least Biglaw firms aren’t using a taxpayer bailout to fund the salary hikes (or million-dollar bonuses, like a 2009 report from then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office indicates), so maybe Leitch should sit the hell down.