Over the summer, when firms were furiously adjusting associate salaries to reflect the cost of living bump since 2016, McGuireWoods told its team that they really had no interest into being peer pressured into raises until the new year, no matter what the “market” did. At least they offered some small summer bonuses.
Well, after months of leaving associates waiting for a big announcement to bring the firm — a firm that resides on the $1M+ PPP list — into line, the firm held a meeting for associates and delivered a report that didn’t overwhelm anyone.
For a firm that already paid below market, offering a $155K to $175K salary for first-years after 2016’s raises, the firm is bumping the young attorneys up to $190K which is nice (second years will be getting $200K in these top markets). Elsewhere, first years in Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Richmond will make $165,000. The firm hands out individualized salaries for more senior associates, and it’s among that crop that the raises will merely “average” 10 percent (another tipster says the meeting said “up to 10 percent”).
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But the raises, while welcome news after so many months, aren’t even something associates will be seeing anytime soon. It seems the firm isn’t making the new salaries active until April 1. They’ll be lucky if there aren’t another round of raises by then.
When it comes to bonuses, the numbers weren’t much better. First- and second-years will receive $7500 for 2050 hours, $15K for 2150, and $22,500 for 2250. (NOTE: A copy of the memo forwarded to ATL appears to suggest associates make $7500 at this level regardless of hours — apparently what this memo intends to convey is that associates get an additional $7500 at each benchmark) Third- through fifth-years will get $10K for 2050 hours, $25K for 2150, and $42,500 for 2250. The sixth and above associates are getting $12,500, $30,000K, and $50K at those levels. It’s one thing to trade off compensation for a relaxed billables target, but forcing associates to exceed 2050 hours to get $625/month in bonus (and McGuireWoods would undoubtedly contend that their summer bonus should count here, but we’re not inviting that apples to oranges conversation) is brutal.
So, for now, we can cross McGuireWoods off the list of firms with millionaire partners who had yet to announce bonuses.
UPDATE: An earlier version of this article had some slightly different numbers. That’s been fixed.
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Earlier: McGuireWoods Will Do What It Wants… And It Doesn’t WANT To Give Raises
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 if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.