Seward & Kissel is not a firm to be outdone. This is a firm that built a 508-foot miniature golf hole across its Manhattan office and annually runs the wildest ugly sweater competition around. So it comes as no surprise that the firm is bringing that energy to its associate compensation, joining the new Milbank pay scale effective July 1.
In a memo to associates sent after 9 p.m. last night, management committee chair Daniel Bresler laid out the new pay scale as “an exciting update regarding associate compensation.”
This news arrives while many… many other top firms still seem to be twiddling their thumbs.
To stay competitive in the battle for talent — a battle that’s as heated as ever right now — the market will all fall in line with this scale. So the best differentiating signal a firm can send it is the speed of adoption. By responding swiftly, Seward let its people (and potential hires) know that it cares as much about keeping them paid in line with the market as it does about having fun.
(You can check out the full text of the memo on the next page…)
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”). 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.
And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we’ll also use for salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.