The litigation boutiques are not waiting for Biglaw’s permission.
Groombridge, Wu, Baughman & Stone, the New York and Washington, D.C. patent litigation powerhouse that has been showering associates with above-market compensation since its earliest days, has announced a new salary scale effective July 1, 2026. And, they’re not merely matching Milbank, they’re going over it.
Here’s the new scale:
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| Class Year | GWBS Scale |
|---|---|
| 2026 | $255,000 |
| 2025 | $255,000 |
| 2024 | $265,000 |
| 2023 | $285,000 |
| 2022 | $335,000 |
| 2021 | $395,000 |
| 2020 | $420,000 |
| 2019 | $450,000 |
| 2018 | $470,000 |
For those keeping score: that’s $20,000 above the new Milbank scale at for junior associates. First-years at GWBS will earn $255,000 — the same floor as Susman Godfrey — while the most senior associates top out at $470,000, $15,000 above the Milbank ceiling. This is, to put it plainly, a lot of money for a firm.
Now, a brief pause to look around at the 2026 compensation scorecard.
There are now a slew of firms above the Milbank scale. The litigation boutiques that built their identity around doing Biglaw-level work without the Biglaw bureaucracy are, collectively, now paying Biglaw-plus money. Meanwhile, the firms with thousands of attorneys, billions in revenue, and decades of brand cachet are still apparently waiting on a permission slip from Cravath before they’ll tell their associates what they’re going to earn on July 1.
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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 Bluesky @Kathryn1