Few firms elicited as much associate angst as Norton Rose Fulbright. We kept hearing from associates as the rest of the Houston market scrambled to match Cravath’s New York salary and Norton Rose just sat there. Given the tangible revenue hit they’ve taken over Brexit, one wondered if the verein could even pull off the raise.
But now Norton Rose Fulbright has joined the salary raise game… and associates aren’t too happy:
Fulbright has had weeks to do the right thing (and lots of examples of firms that have not). After radio silence for weeks, they did the absolute bare minimum shamelessly only announcing salary raises for first years STARTING IN OCTOBER. Disgustingly transparent. This is worse than radio silence.
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Apparently telling associates they won’t get paid until October on the very day most Biglaw associates get their raises is the new hotness in Biglaw management.
The full memo from U.S. managing partner Linda Addison (available on the next page) advises associates to address questions to their practice group leader or “Sue Manch, Chief of People,” which is the coolest Biglaw title ever!
Here’s the sort of complaint I’m pretty sure Chief Manch of the People is hearing right now…
Wtf? Associates are furious, clearly they just want to save face at OCI and are unconcerned about associate retention in the meantime
7 Key Trends In Law Firm Rate Negotiations
And how to navigate them in 2026.
Or maybe this one…
Norton Rose Fulbright raises first year salaries to $180K…says will announce higher class years at a later date and not effective until October 1…..they are probably going to screw upper level associates.
So clearly it doesn’t seem like they are matching the cravath scale….I expect people will start looking for other options since this isn’t exactly the best news on top of the horrible optics of delaying any word of raises until today.
The “upper-level” compression is becoming more and more prevalent as we go further into the summer. Coupled with an October effective date, this is some depressing news to get if you look across the market. Maybe this is all a temporary symptom of recent economic events. Maybe? Hopefully?
Still, the most interesting subplot of “Late-Stage Cravathism” is what we’re all learning about these firms. This is a drawn out poker game and every time one of these firms stiffs an associate or pushes off raises for months on end, it’s becoming increasingly clear who’s sitting on pocket Aces and who’s really hoping to get out of the hand alive.
And in a year or so, we might find out who was bluffing too.
Remember, 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.
Norton Rose Fulbright sees global revenues dip as currency fluctuations hit top line [Legal Week]
Earlier: Angry Associates Ask ‘Where’s My Money?’
Days Go By… And Associates Keep Getting Angrier
Remember That Raise We Told You About… We Have Some Bad News
Joe Patrice is an 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 if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.