Top 50 Biglaw Firm Wows Associates With Move To Cravath Salary Scale

Woohoo, big money!

Pile of DollarsOne by one, almost every single member of the Am Law 50 — excepting a few — has raised salaries to match the now-prevailing Cravath scale. That means associates at these firms are raking in the big bucks to the tune of $215,000 for entry-level attorneys to $415,000 for the most experienced attorneys of all. That’s quite the payday!

Which firm is the latest to hail Cravath with its compensation?

That would be Wilson Sonsini, a West Coast mainstay that found itself at No. 36 in the most recent Am Law 100 ranking after having brought in $1,130,000,000 in gross revenue in 2020. If you recall, the firm matched the Milbank scale in mid-February, just days before Davis Polk announced even higher salaries.

This is what the new salary scale looks like at the firm:

Wilson Sonsini Raise Scale 2022When the firm was still on the Milbank scale, ninth-years were receiving more money than eighth-years, but now on the Cravath scale, all of the firm’s most senior associates will receive the same salaries — and a $415K salary is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Wilson Sonsini associates will see their raises reflected in their first April paychecks, retroactive to February 1. Congrats to everyone at the firm!

(Flip to the next page to see the full memo from Wilson Sonsini.)

Remember everyone, 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 Cravath”). 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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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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