Top Firm Gets On Board With $215K Associate Compensation Scale

Raises for everyone!

money big investing their money in venture fund vector illustration.Hooray! Another Biglaw firm has decided the weekend was a long enough wait to get behind the new prevailing market standard for associate salaries. In case you’ve been cut off from all things Biglaw since last Thursday, Milbank announced they were upping the game on compensation, with associates receiving between a $10,000 and $20,000 bump, depending on seniority.

The latest firm to make a play in the associate compensation wars is WilmerHale. The firm, ranked 29th in the most recent Am Law 100, matched the new salary grid. That makes the new compensation scale as follows:

Class Old Salary New Salary
Class of 2021 $205K $215K
Class of 2020 $215K $225K
Class of 2019 $240K $250K
Class of 2018 $275K $285K
Class of 2017 $305K $325K
Class of 2016 $330K $350K
Class of 2015 $350K $370K
Class of 2014+ $365K $385K

The raises are retroactive to January 1.

In the announcement, the firm also gave more details about their previously announced bonuses. Specifically, given the firm’s performance-based compensation, they charted out how much WilmerHale associates are getting compared with the bonus market standard. So, this is how they stack up:

Screen Shot 2022-01-24 at 1.22.12 PM

The full email is available on the next page.

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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).


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