Talk about an October surprise! Just when the associate salary frenzy had fully receded into a fond summer memory, we receive word that another firm has jumped on the $180K bandwagon, giving us an excuse to break out more pictures of sexy money.
Welcome, Fitzpatrick Cella! The IP firm with offices in New York, D.C., and Orange County sent an email to all associates on Monday informing them of the first-year salary bump effective January 1. According to the firm, older associates will be getting raises as well, but those are yet to be determined. They’ll hear sometime before the end of the year.
Until that announcement, senior associates will have to fret some “salarunching” — a word I just made up for smaller salary raises between advancing years because we’ve written “salary crunching” too many times — a common result when firms try to snag all the glory of raising first-years to scale and keeping mum on older lawyers. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As we’ve said, not every firm needs to keep pace with Cravath at all levels. Still, it’s worth keeping on eye on the extent of the shortfall.
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Until then, congrats to Fitzpatrick Cella associates!
(The full memo is on the next page. It’s short and to the point…)
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.
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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.