Top Biglaw Firm Announces National Salary Scale For All Associates
This Davis Polk match is for everyone -- no matter their office or how much remote work they do.
Compensation changes are happening at Biglaw firms across the country, so wouldn’t it make sense for Biglaw firms to adjust their existing salary scales and move to a national salary scale?
That’s what’s happening at Orrick, a firm that brought in $1,152,850,000 gross revenue in 2020, landing it at No. 35 in the most recent Am Law 100 rankings. At the close of business yesterday, Orrick announced that because they strive to work as “one team,” the firm would be moving to a national pay scale for all U.S. partner-track associates and of counsel, no matter their office affiliation and no matter the amount of remote that’s being performed. And what pay scale would that be? The Davis Polk scale, of course. Salaries will also be raised by $10,000 for both the firm’s career associates and analytics project attorney teams.
(We’ll note that this is the first time we’ve seen salaries mentioned in the same breath as remote work. This may be because Orrick is one of the few firms that has started to hire remote employees, and wants to reassure them that their brand new salaries are secure regardless of their remote working arrangements.)
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Here’s what the salaries for all U.S. associates at Orrick will look like as of July 1:
| ORRICK SALARY SCALE – ALL US OFFICES | ||
| Senior Associate | Year 2+ | $350,000* |
| Year 1 | $350,000 | |
| Managing Associate | Year 3 | $330,000 |
| Year 2 | $305,000 | |
| Year 1 | $275,000 | |
| Associate | Year 3 | $240,000 |
| Year 2 | $215,000 | |
| Year 1 | $205,000 | |
| Incoming – Year 1 & Summer Associates | $202,500 | |
| *Eligible for a $15,000 Base to Market adjustment for a total of $365,000 | ||
What’s going on at the top of the firm’s pay scale for eighth-years and beyond? We reached out to Orrick to find out, and we will provide an update here.
Congratulations to everyone at Orrick!
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(Flip to the next page to see the full memo from Orrick.)
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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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