Last year, the combination of Milbank/Cravath tag teamed to raise the market standard on associate salaries, which resulted in a cascade of raises across the Am Law 200. One firm, Seyfarth Shaw, occupies a high enough place on the Biglaw ranking (#59 on the Am Law 100) that you might expect them to match their peers. However, you’d be wrong.
Even when Seyfarth announced raises earlier this year (February), they weren’t up to the market standard. In fact, the firm has consistently fallen behind the top of Biglaw when it comes to compensation. The firm tends to be behind by about one raise cycle — in 2021, they were giving out 2018 salaries, and in 2018, they gave out 2016 salaries. And the February raises were only $5K above the 2021 standard for first-years on the firm’s national scale.
But the firm went off script. Yesterday, they announced a new set of raises — and at least some associates are now getting market compensation.
This is the new salary scale at Seyfarth:
This scale is a match for junior associates (first- through third-years), but after that, there’s compression for midlevel and senior associates. Those experienced associates are as much as $65,000 behind the top of the market base compensation scale. But it’s still great to see the firm move closer to market.
You can read the full memo below.
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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 or Mastodon @[email protected].
