Associate Raises? Sure, Man. Counsel Raises? A Sterling Idea!

It's good to finally hear something straightforward about counsel.

Every raise cycle brings excitement and congratulations for associates and frowns and consternation for counsel. If raise announcements even acknowledge the existence of counsel, it’s to say that counsel will be hearing about compensation individually… eventually. Not exactly encouraging.

Sometimes this works out to counsel earning less than senior associates.

We’ve now heard from Shearman & Sterling, and it’s a match of the new associate scale as expected. But there’s one exciting tidbit for the counsel.

First, the grid:

As usual, counsel are not included in that grid, but the memo takes the extra step of acknowledging the firm’s counsel as human beings and professionals:

We are committed to attracting and retaining the best associate talent. In this regard, we will also be increasing our counsel base salaries by $15,000.

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Great news! And recognition that treating counsel right is key to recruiting the best associate talent. Not to crib from an NCAA commercial, but there are a lot of Biglaw associates and most of them are going pro as something other than a Biglaw partner. Demonstrating that the firm will honor loyal senior attorneys in the counsel role sends a positive message to associates about the place.

Congratulations to all.

Please help us help you when it comes to salary news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Salary”) or text us (646-820-8477). 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.

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior 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. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.


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