UK Firm Delivers Happy Salary News To Its American Associates
There are still a lot of firms yet to match.
We’ve still got a week to go before the July 1 date when the new associate salary scale will take effect at all the firms who’ve matched so far, and associates on the outside looking in are getting antsy. We’ve fielded a lot of messages from people convinced their firm is the only firm that hasn’t issued raises yet and demanding that their employers be appropriately shamed by name.
The problem is… there are still a ton of firms out there that haven’t matched. As much as a random associate out there may feel justifiably aggrieved right now, trust that you’re not alone. This raise season has played out interminably slowly. In 2016, we wrote a post about a “finally” matching a mere seven days after the initial move. In 2018, we didn’t even have the scale fully settled within seven days.
But with July 1 looming, expect today and early next week to feature a flurry of announcements! Like this one from Herbert Smith Freehills, who informed its American associates that the firm’s New York office would be joining the new pay scale:
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| Class | New salary scale for New York associates |
| Class of 2010 | $ 340,000 |
| Class of 2011 | $ 325,000 |
| Class of 2012 | $ 305,000 |
| Class of 2013 | $ 280,000 |
| Class of 2014 | $ 255,000 |
| Class of 2015 | $ 220,000 |
| Class of 2016 | $ 200,000 |
| Class of 2017 | $ 190,000 |
The firm is not offering summer bonuses at this time, making this — in the parlance of our times — a “Milbank/Cravath hold the Simpson.”
Scott Balber, Office Managing Partner of Herbert Smith Freehills New York office and US Head of Investigations and Financial Services Litigation said:
We are building a top notch team in our New York office that is consistently performing at an elite level. This new salary increase demonstrates our continuing commitment to maintain a high-quality talent base in New York. Investing in our associates in this way promotes our high-performance culture, rewards our existing team and helps to attract premier talent, in a highly-competitive New York legal market.
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The lack of summer bonuses is surely a disappointment for associates, but at least they can rest easy before going into the weekend that the firm has moved them to match the proper scale.
Not every firm’s associates will get to say that.
You know the drill by now, but 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] Matches”). 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.
And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we’ll also use for salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish.
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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.
