Holdout Firm Flip-Flops On Salary
After all that, they offer raises anyway.
Seyfarth Shaw got a lot of flak when it boldly tried to put a stop to the salary frenzy. The firm blew off the idea of raises, and its chairman emeritus penned an article proclaiming woe to firms that raise their salaries in the vain hope that this could halt the gathering “compensamentum.” Even at the time, this felt like a Biglaw Wile E. Coyote lofting a miniature umbrella to shield it from the anvil.
And so today, Seyfarth Shaw joins the Covington Memorial Salary Flip-Flop Club with a salary increase announcement.
First of all, raises are effective on October 1, fully three months after most associates got their raises. Is the third quarter that tight?
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Second, different Seyfarth offices are on different scales, which actually makes sense. But how much each office gets may cause some grumbling.
We don’t have the precise New York office scale at this time, but we’ve been told that it runs from $180K to $300K — whether that matches the Cravath scale through the seventh year or is the result of some crunching at the senior end remains to be seen.
We’ve heard that the bulk of Seyfarth’s other domestic offices (with the possible exception of outliers like Atlanta or Sacramento) will be on a $160K to $280K scale. This memo from San Francisco details that scale. Seyfarth employs one of those funky 3×3 compensation grids, but for the sake of simplicity this is what it looks like converted into traditional classes:
| First-year | $165K |
| Second-year | $175K |
| Third-year | $185K |
| Fourth-year | $205K |
| Fifth-year | $225K |
| Sixth-year | $240K |
| Seventh-year | $260K |
| Eighth-year | $270K |
| Ninth-year | $280K |
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The bad news: it’s not matching Cravath. The good news: most years are getting as big or bigger raises from their current salary. Seyfarth was already below the $160K market in San Francisco, and this raise may not match Cravath but draws closer. No Cravath raise exceeded $35K per year, while a couple of the more senior Seyfarth classes on this scale are receiving $40K bumps over their current salary. That’s not nothing.
One tipster notes:
They also hinted at changes to bonuses and leave policies. Honestly, better than I thought it would be. No change in hours requirements. I think they’re treating Boston as a regional office, which makes no sense to me because we’re one of the most profitable offices….
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Double points for the emoticon.
Then there’s the really bad news — if you’re an income partner, that is. According to at least one source, some of these raises place senior associates above income partners! Needless to say, those lawyers aren’t pleased.
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So a muted congratulations to Seyfarth Shaw associates. This may not be all you could have hoped for, but it’s certainly much more than it looked like you’d get a couple weeks ago.
(The San Francisco memo is available on the next page…)
Remember, when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches Cravath”). 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.
Earlier: One Firm Decides To Pump The Brakes On This Whole ‘Raise’ Thing
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Biglaw Firm Changes Course On Associate Compensation
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.
