Biglaw

Jones Day Raises Salaries But Remains A Black Box

Help us help you! We want to crack open the black box.

By  
on

Jones Day announced raises, which at most firms is great news. And it is, to a degree, at Jones Day — after all, the base for junior associates has moved to the new market standard. But for the majority of associates, the firm’s notoriously opaque compensation system is a source of anger.

Just take a look at an exemplar of the complaints we are hearing:

[New raise is] well below what it should be. Have heard from at least one other with same experience who falls in same range and many others are unsatisfied and below market. Would love to see a collection of salaries like you did in 2016!

So, why, exactly is compensation information so difficult to discern at the firm? Well, there is no official scale for older associates as the system is “closed comp” or “black box,” meaning that nobody knows what anyone else makes. Attorneys, both at the associate and partner level, are just supposed to live with the secrecy. Talking about your comp with colleagues is verboten; the firm claims this promotes collegiality and teamwork by eliminating complaints over pay so lawyers can focus on their work and client service. Which sounds nice in theory, but, as we’ve seen, also breeds a lot of frustration.

After the 2016 raises, ATL spent a lot of timing digging into the numbers behind Jones Day’s compensation. What we found was — by and large — compensation below market rates and a lot of angry associates. Another key difference to the JD model: The firm doesn’t pay year-end or mid-year bonuses; you get just your base salary. Mid-year, you’re notified of what your base salary will be for the coming year, which, allegedly should be above market to reflect the lack of bonuses, but not so much the reality for associates on the ground. And especially in a year with special bonuses on top of year-end bonuses, the Jones Day compensation looks pretty grim from what we’re hearing. The new salary goes into effect on July 1 and then the following June you get your next pay raise letter, starting the cycle anew.

Associates at JD, please email us (subject line: “Jones Day”) or text us (646-820-8477) with any and all information you have about your compensation or comp for other associates you know. You can provide a range for pay if you prefer doing that over giving an exact number. As you can see from past efforts to shine light into the black box of associate compensation, providing us with your year, a sense of your hours (low: >1800, average: 1800-2000, high: 2000+), and salary range is very, very useful.

We’d love another crack at opening up Jones Day’s black box.

Sponsored

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. 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).

Sponsored

Bonus Time

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

Topics

, , , , , ,