Biglaw

Associates Get Raises, Special Counsel Get The Shaft

Biglaw's forgotten attorneys aren't enjoying this raise cycle as much as the rest of you.

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While Biglaw — and quite a few Small Law — associates celebrate their new raises, senior lawyers across the industry aren’t sharing in the love. Whether a firm calls them “Counsel,” “Senior Counsel,” “Of Counsel,” “Special Counsel,” “Super Duper Counsel,” or “Income Partner,” that class of experienced attorney just a shade outside the ranks of equity partnership tends to fare poorly when raises start going around and this year is no exception.

Compensation among counsel and income partners varies wildly, but we have a reasonable cross-section based on our tipsters.

Simpson Thacher is apparently the exception to the rule when it comes to counsel compensation. From what we’re hearing, it’s not uncommon for counsel to make considerably more than senior associates — in the high $300Ks to low $400Ks base, while also earning the $25K summer bonus. If only the rest of our tips had such a happy ending.

A smaller firm tipster wrote in to tell us that senior counsel are making $390K, which isn’t necessarily bad, but that it’s frustrating to watch senior associates creep closer and closer while counsel with over a decade of experience have remained mostly locked. As the tipster put it, this doesn’t make any of the counsel feel particularly valued or appreciated. This is the rub when it comes to counsel pay — the firm bends over backward to stay ahead of the associate recruiting curve, but there’s not much of a market for recruiting and retaining counsel. Without that pressure, the only motivation to pay counsel more is the duty to pay them what they deserve and firms have a long history of overlooking such fuzzy moral duties.

The counsel at Mayer Brown are getting an across-the-board bump to keep them in line with the raises coming to associates. Not ahead of senior associates, mind you, but in line with them. Going forward, $340K will be the salary floor for all senior lawyers. And no bonuses. Still, tipsters say the firm’s commitment to providing the absolute bare minimum may stir up a mutiny.

At least the counsel at Gibson Dunn are getting some nominal acknowledgment for their experience. The firm gave modest raises in the $10K range to counsel and kicked in a $25K bonus. This isn’t much, but it does keep them just slightly ahead of the most senior class of associates.

Which is more than can be said for Cahill, where some counsel are making considerably less in base salary than senior associates and also not getting a summer bonus. According to tipsters, a firm memo promised to address counsel pay at the end of the year, but counsel aren’t optimistic.

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Katten Muchin Rosenman, in a supplemental memo distributed to Department Heads, Office Managing Partners, Chief Officers and Directors, it was specifically stated that there will be no comp increases to Special Counsel, Of Counsel or Staff Attorneys.

But everyone on this list has a lot to be thankful for when compared to income partners at McGuireWoods. After the most recent round of raises, the income partners there are getting paid commensurate to market 5th years.

Proving yet again that the grass is always browner on the other side.

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.

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