With Biglaw recruitment season just around the corner, firms are in a rush to prove that they too belong at the top of the industry by meeting the new market compensation scale. Firms are hoping to impress the best of the best law students, and a sexy $190,000 starting salary gets attention.
Now it’s possible the penny-pinching firms out there are hoping that when law students are busy evaluating firms, they’ll only clock the impressive first-year salary. This way, compressing the top of the scale (say, the Class of 2010 getting paid $15,000 less than at competitor firms) or skipping out on the mid-year bonuses may go unnoticed.
Now, I’m not saying that’s what’s happening at Brown Rudnick, but here’s the new base compensation scale they announced yesterday (note the compression at the Class of 2010 level and compare it to the $340,000 other firms are paying that class):
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And no, there are no mid-year bonuses coming their way. But the announcement leaves the door open that maybe, just maybe, when it comes to end of the year bonuses they’ll get a bump to compensate for peer firms’ special bonuses.
We are evaluating the impact the increase to associate salaries will have on our more senior lawyers, including income partners. We will communicate any increases individually.
We are aware that some firms are paying interim bonuses based on various factors, including annualized hours to date. We will continue to follow our discretionary annual bonus program, in which associates may, and often do, earn higher bonuses than the published market scale, based on their actual year-end hours and annual performance. In making our annual bonus determinations following the end of our fiscal year, we will take into account all market movements throughout the year, including those relating to year-end and interim bonuses.
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(Read the full memo from the firms on the next page.)
Kathryn Rubino is an 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).