Biglaw

$190,000 Doesn't Tell The Whole Story -- Senior Associates Feeling The Pinch At This Biglaw Firm

Would you start looking for a new job in this scenario?

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$190,000 as a starting salary for first year associates might sound like a firm is matching the prevailing market scale, but when you look closely at the details that isn’t always the case.

Take the recently announced raises from Patterson Belknap. Sure, junior and even mid-level associates will be making the same amount as their peers at other firms, but right around the class of 2012 things start getting wonky. That’s right, Patterson is deploying the age-old trick of salary compression, where the sexy first-year salary matches the market standard, but senior associates — you know the ones with more value to clients, and, one would presume, the firm — feel the pinch. The class of 2012 at Patterson will be making $15,000 less than the market standard, while the class of 2010 is at a $40,000 disadvantage to peer firms.

Check out the Patterson scale below:

Oh and, there are no special summer bonuses at the firm. The sentiment from tipsters we’ve heard from is… not pretty:

No bonuses and senior people just get progressively more fucked. People are pissed. Everyone here could be working somewhere else with better compensation, and we’re going to start.

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of this stuff. So when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Raises Salaries”). 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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(Check out the full memo from the firm on the next page.)

headshotKathryn Rubino is a senior editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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