What's Up With Counsel Salaries?
We've not been hearing much from senior lawyers, but what we've heard isn't great.
Amid all the excitement about associate salaries, those senior attorneys occupying the critical yet underappreciated role of “counsel” have gotten lost in the shuffle. It’s not entirely our fault, though. After all, most firms don’t put out memos of lockstep counsel pay, and in many firms the number of counsel is so low that none dare exposing themselves as the Above the Law leak.
But we’ve been gathering information on counsel compensation wherever we can. So far, it seems as though, generally, counsel are suffering for those associate raises. Which is extra troubling given that women, more often than men, occupy the counsel ranks for a variety of reasons. Back in the day, it was considered an ideal landing spot for valuable female attorneys whose desire to have a family put them out of partnership consideration. Mercifully that sort of obvious bias is receding, but that a role traditionally dismissed as feminine is now getting overlooked in compensation should raise red flags.
Let’s examine what we know about counsel compensation at three firms where counsel compensation is — like at most firms — left out of the firm memo: Skadden, Hogan Lovells, and Haynes and Boone.
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First we have Skadden, a firm sufficiently replete with counsel that they actually put out a separate memo for these lawyers (available in full on the next page):
| 1st Year Counsel | $335,000 |
| 2nd Year Counsel | $345,000 |
| 3rd Year Counsel | $355,000 |
| 4th Year+ Counsel | $360,000 |
To figure out what happened here, we need to look at where Skadden’s counsel compensation was before this round of salary boosts:
| 1st Year Counsel | $300,000 |
| 2nd Year Counsel | $310,000 |
| 3rd Year Counsel | $320,000 |
| 4th Year Counsel | $330,000 |
| 5th Year Counsel | $340,000 |
| 6th Year+ Counsel | $350,000 |
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So it looks like what Skadden functionally gave the full $35,000 “Cravath” increase to 1st, 2nd and 3rd year Counsel, $30,000 to 4th year Counsel, $20,000 to 5th year Counsel, and $10,000 to 6th year Counsel and above. Sucks to be an older counsel I guess.
If you were thinking that counsel might be making this up on the back end with their bonuses, the memo addresses that too. The “maximum bonus opportunity” for counsel will be increased $10,000 for 1st and 2nd year Counsel and $35,000 for more senior Counsel. But therein lay the rub! A 1st year Counsel who hits the “maximum bonus opportunity” is getting an overall raise this year of $45,000 compared to $35,000 for a fully bonused top-level senior Counsel. That’s hardly fair.
But Skadden is positively counsel-friendly compared to some other firms we’ve heard about. Take Simpson Thacher, which we’ve heard didn’t move counsel compensation at all:
While Simpson has matched the associate pay raises announced by Cravath, they have chosen to keep counsel pay the same. This means that Simpson’s already below-market counsel now make just $10k/year more than the class of 2008 [$325K versus $315K].
See also Hogan Lovells:
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While associate compensation has gone up, counsel compensation has not. Counsel now make $15k less in base compensation than senior associates. The firm is not committing to make up this difference at the end of the year. Counsel are angry, and senior associates who are up for counsel this year are feeling vulnerable.
Sadly, Hogan Lovells isn’t alone. We’re also hearing that Haynes and Boone opted, so far, to leave their counsel out of the cavalcade… to the extent that associates are, as we understand it, now making more:
Associates will be making on average more than most Counsel — even those that are allegedly lockstep…. Can’t wait to head into the office tomorrow to supervise and make comments on the work product of associates who are now making 40 grand more than us.
One hopes that Haynes and Boone will look to rectify this soon. They did only raise associate salaries this week so it’s possible they haven’t had time to process the impact this has on their counsel yet.
UPDATE (6/24/16 12:12 p.m.): We’ve heard some more troubling news about counsel mired in a compensation quandary:
Cahill did not bump up those in class 07 and above. General sense is it’s penny pinching to go along with their recent termination of the technology stipend for all lawyers. I wouldn’t be expecting another round of summer bonuses this year.
But at least we got some good news from a counsel at an unnamed firm:
I’m a second year “Special Counsel” (class of ’06) and my salary has just been raised to $365,000 (from $340,000)
Hopefully there will be more of those reports in coming days.
If you have more intel on counsel compensation, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches Cravath”). Please include any memo if available.
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
