As we inch ever closer to July 1, the date when most of the announced Biglaw raises become effective, associates at firms that haven’t announced raises yet are getting increasingly anxious. That’s been especially true at King & Spalding — a firm with a staggering $1,138,540,000 in revenue, placing it 21st in profitability and 22nd in profits per partner.
Earlier this week, an email from a fellow associate that supposedly had inside knowledge made the rounds assuring everyone “all offices will have salary increases; amount of increase will be individualized by office.” I’m sure that was certainly nice to hear, but until the powers that be made an official announcement saying they’d decided to move salaries in accordance with the new market reality, the rank-and-file associate was on pins and needles.
Today, that announcement came.
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Associates have received individualized memos, and the offices that had been on the New York scale appear to have moved to the full Milbank/Simpson/Cravath scale. Atlanta associates — who didn’t move up to the $180K scale in 2016 — got raises too, just not quite as large.
Special bonuses will also be paid to associates on track to meet the hours requirement. If an associate does not meet that billing mark mid-year, they’ll have an opportunity to earn that special bonus at year end.
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Kathryn 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).