Biglaw

Welcome To The Money Party, Texas!

Texas mainstay has entered the salary fray.

By  
on

“Will the raises reach my market?”

That’s the question on the minds of associates across the country this month. While no one seriously expected the New York and DC markets to allow Milbank to waltz into recruiting season all by its lonesome boasting a $190K scale, whether or not the relatively modest cost-of-living adjustment that Milbank unveiled two weeks ago would reach every Biglaw market was a question.

California’s highest-profile firms will match, of course, as we saw with a trio of raises announced today. Chicago appears to be generating some matching momentum too. But what of Dallas? Or Charlotte? These are the markets that many industry observers, including me, didn’t think merited a full salary scale match in 2016. In that sense, this round of raises serves as a referendum on the wisdom of 2016. After all, any firm that raised salaries in 2016 has no excuse not to match the new scale given that it’s a mere cost-of-living adjustment. Any firm — or any market — that doesn’t is hoisting a flag to inform their peers that they now realize they overstepped before.

Houston, the poster child market for Biglaw’s colonization and displacement of local law firms, is an interesting case to consider. Biglaw firms with a presence in Houston will mostly bump up their salaries to keep domestic pay equal. Will the legacy Houston firms join, or cede the recruiting wars to the interlopers?

One firm with deep Houston roots has taken the bull by the horns as they might say, and proclaimed themselves a full match.

Vinson & Elkins adopted the full scale, complete with summer bonuses (and increased pay for summers) across their US offices.

Sponsored

As one might imagine, associates are psyched.

V&E MATCHED CRAVATH SCALE + BONUSES in all U.S. offices. We are elated!!!

And…

Associates are very excited and grateful for the raises/bonuses. It’s nice to be at V&E where we lead the Texas market…. We never doubted that we’d follow Cravath but a lot of other friends at other Texas firms don’t/didn’t have the same confidence. Thanks V&E leadership.

As a recent ALM Intelligence report pointed out, Texas-based firms have gotten hit hard by outsider firms entering the market, poaching partners and associates, and driving up the competitiveness of the recruiting pool.

Sponsored

V&E clearly feels they’re not ready to go quietly into the night… or, as the case may be, quietly into a smaller market share. Game on, Houston market!

(Check out the full memo on the next page if you want to grab the image and send it around to your bosses…)

So, Texas people, when your firm inevitably 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.

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. Thanks!

Earlier: How Global Biglaw Titans Are Demolishing Local Firms… And How To Survive The Onslaught
Why The Milbank Raise Is Not That Big Of A Deal — And Why It Is
Here’s Why You Don’t Deserve The Same Raise… In Pictures

HeadshotJoe 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.

1 2Next »
Bonus Time

Enter your email address to sign up for ATL's Bonus & Salary Increase Alerts.

Topics

, , , , ,