Biglaw

Philadelphia Biglaw Firms Get On Board With Raises For Associates

These firms are showing associates the money -- if they're in the right market, that is.

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While a good number of firms have moved to a national salary scale for all associates during this summer’s salary wars, others have stuck with their prior, market-based approaches to compensation. For those firms, associates in larger markets moved up to the now-prevailing $205.000 salary scale, while associates in smaller markets received commensurate raises.

That’s exactly what’s going on at Philadelphia-based firms Blank Rome and Duane Morris. Both firms recently raised salaries, but some associates will be receiving less money than others based simply on their office location.

Thanks to Jeff Blumenthal’s intrepid reporting over at the Philadelphia Business Journal, we now know that Blank Rome has raised salaries for first-year associates in its larger markets (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and D.C.) to $205,000 and increased starting salaries for associates in its smaller markets (Wilmington, Princeton, and its home base of Philadelphia) to $190,000. All other associates will receive commensurate market salary increases. The firm did not disclose what raises, if any, first-years in other offices would receive.

Duane Morris, on the other hand, has raised salaries for all associates in its major markets (Philadelphia, New York, D.C., and Chicago) to $190,000, with commensurate raises for all other associates depending on class year, market location, and practice area.

This all seems a little black-boxy for our tastes, but as we keep saying, a raise is a raise is a raise. If you’d like to help us crack the compensation code for Blank Rome and Duane Morris for other class years, please feel free to send us an email. We will be sure to keep you anonymous.

We depend on your tips to stay on top of this stuff. So when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches”). 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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Two more big Philadelphia law firms join associate salary wars [Philadelphia Business Journal]

Staci ZaretskyStaci 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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