Biglaw Firm Announces Raises For Anxiously Waiting Associates

How quickly will the rest of the market follow?

Business man hand gives money bag to another person.Fresh off of getting some flack for not jumping on the Biglaw raises bandwagon fast enough, Fenwick & West has announced raises for its hardworking associates.

The firm, which made $543,079,000 in gross revenue in 2020 making it 72nd on the Am Law 100, announce the compensation change today, after Milbank raised associate salaries last month. But despite the antsy associates, the firm is actually on the early side of matches. Over a month after the first raises, the bulk of the market has still not matched.

But the wait is over for Fenwick associates! The new salary scale — for attorneys in good standing and on track to bill 1,950 hours — is as follows:

Screen Shot 2022-02-18 at 2.42.14 PM

These raises will be retroactive to January 1 — the same effective date as the Milbank bump — and counsel compensation will be individualized. You can read the full memo on the next page.

*** Wondering if the grass is greener on the in-house side? Click here for a look inside the black box of corporate counsel pay in our 2021 In-House Compensation Report. ***

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, 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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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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